Row over empty hospital beds

A fresh row has erupted today over hospital beds being left empty in the capital.

The fate of three of London's leading hospitals is uncertain because of a lack of money and patients, health chiefs say.

Hammersmith Hospital has shut 100 beds, Ravenscourt Park orthopaedic hospital is doing half the operations it could, and a flagship NHS-run unit to speed nonemergency treatment at Central Middlesex hospital faces closure.

The Ambulatory Care and Diagnostic Centre (ACAD) at Central Middlesex has cut waiting times for operations and could take more cases - but its doctors are standing idle because some health authorities have run out of money and cannot afford to send more patients.

Now politicians and hospital bosses say Health Secretary John Reid is making the situation worse with a policy to send more NHS patients into private care. Despite there being spare NHS capacity, health authorities are drawing up plans to pass 15 per cent of their workload to the private sector.

Dr Reid insists this will boost patient choice and drive down waiting lists. But experts say it will strip money from NHS hospitals and lead to more bed closures in London.

Derek Smith, chief executive Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "The logic of this policy defies belief." He warned that the Government was "taking food off the NHS table", adding: "The risk is that for the remaining NHS, financial difficulties will grow and the result will be more bed closures. Health authorities such as North West London have excess capacity."

There are already some private treatment centres but 70 more are planned. They would be able to treat 250,000 patients a year at a cost of ?500million. The Health Department says they are needed to reach, by 2008, the target of a maximum 18-week wait between a patient seeing a GP and having an operation.

By next year, patients should wait no longer than six months - but many London hospitals have already been treating patients faster than this.

Dr Jennifer Dickson, director of policy at health think tank The King's Fund, said the plan could undermine NHS finances: "This is a high-risk strategy, especially in London. Hospitals face losing part of their income automatically to the private sector."

Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, added: "It is crazy logic that the NHS has capacity idle, wasting taxpayers' money, while there are patients waiting months for treatment."

And Andrew Lansley, shadow health secretary, said: "Here's an example of where capacity is available but Labour bureaucracy stops choice."

Private firms will also provide ?400 million worth of services such as X-rays and scans. But MRI scanners in NHS hospitals are idle outside office hours because of difficulties in staffing them.

The Health Department defended its plans: "This new phase of independent sector procurement will be designed to ensure the 18 week target is met by 2008," it said. "The NHS requires significant expansion of elective treatment services and diagnostic services to achieve this. We are working with the NHS to ensure this procurement fits with local need."