Practices in the health service ‘must change’

THE health service will be unable to cope with demand by 2021 unless changes are made to the way in which healthcare is delivered, according to a report.

Failure to re-organise — including boosting the number of long-term residential beds in the community by almost 900 per annum — will create a need for an additional 5,214 in-patient beds by 2020, as well as 1,022 day beds, said the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). This is due largely to a growing and ageing population. The report predicts:

* The population will grow to between 4.7 million and 5.1 million by 2021.