Bed shortage costs taxpayer thousands

3.10.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sat 4th Jul 2009

April Pond, Simon Wright and Norman Lamb MP are fighting for Norfolk's NHS

Hundreds of operations at the Norfolk & Norwich have been cancelled this year because of a shortage of beds, forcing the NHS to spend hundreds of thousands on putting patients up in private hospitals.

Local health campaigner April Pond, who has warned of the impact this could have on NHS care in Norfolk, said: "Using these private beds is massively more expensive to the local health service than using NHS beds.

"It's ridiculous that we've got a new hospital built at great expense which is simply unable to cope. The private sector is making massive profits out of inadequate local provision of beds."

April Pond and Norfolk MP Norman Lamb are campaigning side-by-side to protect local hospital beds across Norfolk threatened with cuts. April led efforts to retain St Michael's Hospital in Aylsham.

She said: "I'm very angry that this situation has come about, given the anxiety caused to patients who may be worried about their operation only to be told that it has been cancelled.

"The health trust has closed a number of community hospitals in Norfolk despite protests that it would damage the health service and increase the strain on the Norfolk and Norwich."

Norfolk Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb shares April's concerns: "This is a bad deal for Norfolk patients. It cannot be right to pay over the odds for private beds. It smacks of crisis management."

A parliamentary question from Norman Lamb showed that total NHS bed numbers across England have fallen every year in the past five years.