The Government should halt its plans to establish new hospital trusts and rethink its moves to introduce a universal health insurance system, a new report has argued.
The report, commissioned by the trade union Impact, said new groups of hospital trusts were being established were being established before funding and staffing levels were agreed.
It also said hospital trusts were being put in place without proper consideration about how they would be integrated with primary care and other non-hospital services.
"Patient safety and service quality is being put at risk because independent hospital trusts and other structures are being implemented before fundamental issues are resolved," the report said.
It said the funding model proposed by the Government for its universal health insurance system was "deeply flawed" and was unlikely to deliver value for money.
