Stephen Dorrell: We can't just keep bailing out A&E

Stephen Dorrell: We can't just keep bailing out A&E The NHS Confederation chair, and former health secretary, says funding urgent care cannot be at the expense of preventing illness. The NHS must start working with councils, public health and housing

As the NHS family gathers for its annual showpiece conference this week, anyone expecting that family’s new patriarch to speak in its narrow interest is in for a rude shock. For Stephen Dorrell, chair of the NHS Confederation, is going to tell the movers and shakers of the health service that neither they – nor the service – have any future unless they start to think and act very differently. And quickly.

If the NHS is not yet on its knees, it is surely sinking to them. Hospitals in England ended the 2015-16 financial year with unprecedented debts of almost £2.5bn; the plan to realise savings of £22bn by 2020 looks dead in the water; and of a rash of performance indicators out last week, all moving either in the wrong direction or alarmingly little in the right one for the time of year, the most concerning was a record number of patients stuck in hospital when ready for discharge.

Manchester city council’s chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein, is one of the most influential people in healthcare

It would be without precedent for any advanced society not to devote some proceeds of economic growth to health and care Continue reading... The Guardian