Commentary: week ending 6 January 2012

Almost half of hospital beds could be used for private patients, if an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill is accepted. Understandably, this aroused quite a lot of controversy, particularly as it was slipped out during the Christmas holidays. Labour has dubbed it yet another move towards a US-style commercial health system. Defenders say it enables hospitals to generate much-needed funds that will help NHS patients. However, the original Bill placed no limit at all on how many beds could be used.

NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar has reiterated his call to make the best of any changes or reconfigurations necessitated by the recession and the government's health reforms. For many years people like Mr Farrar have tried to point out that some hospital care is expensive in comparison to care at home — a point also made in a King's Fund report this week — and that not only could the NHS save money but care closer to home could improve patients' lives as well.

Continuing on the theme of reassessing the way things are done in the NHS, the government has again underlined its commitment to the introduction of more telehealth and telecare technology. The whole system demonstrator, that ended last year, concluded that innovation in this sphere produced benefits for patients and the service. In that light the extra few million promised by the government is very welcome, but perhaps the funding should be ramped up to match the expectations this technology excites.

Yet another of the controversial health reform policies took a step forward, or otherwise, this week, when pilots to investigate what would happen if GP practice boundaries are abolished were announced. They start in April and the government sees them as a way of liberating patients' choice of by whom and where they are treated. GP leaders have criticised the plans as liable to unbalance patient registers, particularly in areas where there are high volumes of commuters, and warned there is very little enthusiasm for the move among their colleagues.