Call to boost care by cutting 30,000 beds

Reform's worrying study, titled Fewer Hospitals More Competition, indicates that regions including London, north-east England and north-west England should expect to close over a quarter of their beds.

It made the claim in the name of "competition," suggesting that this would drive up standards.

Reform's study argues that the latest challenges in health care, such as helping people manage long-term conditions and improving the quality of life for survivors of disease, are less reliant on hospitals.

These conditions can be mostly managed in the community, which cuts cost and moves care away from hospitals, it said.

But Health Emergency chairman Geoff Martin brushed off the report as the ramblings of a "bunch of nutters."

He said: "The last thing that we need in the current atmosphere of public-spending cuts is this bunch of nutters advocating ripping the heart out of our hospitals in order to grab themselves a few minutes in the limelight.

"The NHS is under enough threat at the moment without these attention-seekers giving even more excuse for NHS bureaucrats to slash beds and close hospitals."

Reform is also urging the government to stop interfering in local decision-making about NHS ward closures.

But BMA consultants committee chairman Mark Porter argued that bed occupancy rates are already very high in the NHS and that cutting them would be "immoral and catastrophic for patient care."

He said: "It is bizarre to argue for more competition given the amounts of public money that have been wasted as a result of private-sector involvement in the NHS and the cost and bureaucracy associated with the market."

Unison head of health Karen Jennings also lambasted Reform's suggestions as "irresponsible" and "ill-thought-through," adding that they "may save money but will do nothing to save lives."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: "Efficiencies are about making sure that trusts can continue to provide high-quality care at a time when spending is going to be tighter across the whole public sector."