Burnham should get second opinion on care prescription

By Craig Dearden-Phillips | 27 October 2014
  • Craig Dearden-Phillips

Labour's Andy Burnham has probably articulated more clearly than any other politician how the NHS is going to have to change from a hospital-based service to one which also supports people to stay healthy. 

He has also been very clear that this will involve hospitals, or parts of them, closing, as care is moved into the community.  

He rightly cites Torbay Care Trust as an example of integrated health and social care, where wards have been closed in order to free resource for better community-based care.

So far, so good.  Where Burnham has not got it right is his vision for a new National Health and Care Service (NHCS) which, in his own words, would be a 'refounding' of the NHS for our times.  

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