A new survey from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) found that over a quarter (28%) of consultant physicians surveyed rate their hospital’s ability to deliver continuity of care as poor or very poor.
In addition, over a quarter (27%) believe that their hospital is poor or very poor at delivering stable medical teams for patient care and education. The results reinforce previous RCP concerns for the increasing pressures that NHS Trusts are facing due to the rise in acute admissions, the ageing population with increasingly complex conditions, and cuts in budgets and staffing. In order to address all these issues, the president of the RCP is setting up a Commission on the Future Hospital, to look at the organisation, processes and standards of care in hospital in order to identify the best way to treat medical inpatients in the future. This Future Hospital Commission will be chaired by Professor Sir Michael Rawlins and will have five workstreams:
• People (medical teams, handover, communication).
• Data (patient records, medical information, audit).
• Place (medical wards, the patient pathway, generalists and specialists)
• Planning infrastructure (radiology, laboratory, pharmacy and support staff, interfaces with community and primary care).
• Patients and compassion (leadership and responsibility, MDTs, end of life care).
