Labour Conference: Inquiry into NHS beds

A NATIONAL inquiry into National Health Service hospital beds is to be announced today by Frank Dobson, the Secretary of State for Health, as part of the drive to reduce waiting lists.

Mr Dobson will tell the conference in Blackpool that the inquiry, to be carried out by NHS officials, will challenge claims that standards of care in the health service have nothing to do with the number of beds.

The review could lead to far-reaching changes in hospitals, but sources close to Mr Dobson said last night it would not be used to enforce a new round of hospital closures. "It is not a Trojan horse for bed closures," a source said.

The inquiry will establish the number of beds in NHS hospitals, the type of care they provide and whether they could be used more efficiently. It is expected it will look into the scope for more action to tackle "bed blocking" by the elderly, who could be allowed, if they had home help.

Mr Dobson believes that the pounds 300m winter initiative last year showed that the waiting lists would come down faster if more beds were brought into use. A total of 2,000 new beds were brought into operation and 1,000 were saved from closure with a further injection of pounds 500m to tackle waiting lists.

"The received wisdom from the academics is that the number of beds in the NHS is not important. We are not interested in received wisdom. We want results," the source said.

Mr Dobson will face calls from the health unions for higher pay for nurses. The Royal College of Nursing called last night for extra resources for the NHS to cover pay after Tony Blair said in his keynote address to the Labour conference that the NHS must meet the challenges of modernisation.

The nursing staff will submit a claim on Friday and the Royal College will be calling for a substantial increase for nurses in mid-October. Ministers are under Treasury orders to keep pay rises to around the 3.5 per cent inflation target, but Mr Dobson is keen to meet the nurses' pay award next year in full. The Government is also facing opposition to its pay restraint policy from family doctors, who have submitted a bid for an extra 10 per cent next year, and 19,000 dentists who are seeking at least an extra 5 per cent.