title: Acute services. Time to strip the beds?
abstract: The health authority and trust proposals for Birmingham's health services, currently the subject of consultation, are radical, untested and uncosted. They assume that once emergency assessment and ambulatory care centres are operational, under half the current caseload will need inpatient stays. University Hospital Birmingham trust's proposal for a new hospital built and operated by the private sector assumes no growth in activity and a 17 per cent reduction in the present bed complement, at a time when emergency admissions in Birmingham are increasing by 5 per cent a year. Analysis of the proposals suggests they will destabilise an already precarious acute service in Birmingham.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Sciences, St. George's Hospital Medical School.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pollock
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gaffney
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dunnigan
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shaoul
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003153:Community Health Services; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D004739:England; D006295:Health Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D012040:Regional Health Planning; D013038:Specialization; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration*