New NHS boss highlights benefits of decentralised hospital system

The new chief executive of NHS England has argued in favour of creating smaller cottage-style hospitals instead of large, centralised facilities.

In an interview with the Telegraph, Simon Stevens suggested the NHS needs to stop closing smaller community-based hospitals in order to give more patients the option to receive care in their local areas.

He stated that British hospitals are among the worst in western Europe at caring for local populations because too many services have been stripped out and centralised. This means many people do not receive the necessary "dignity and compassion" in their care.

The new NHS England boss believes it is possible to sustainably run scaled-down local hospitals to serve smaller communities, following the model used in countries such as Sweden, the Netherlands and the US.

"Most of western Europe has hospitals which are able to serve their local communities, without everything having to be centralised," he said.

Mr Stevens took over the leadership of NHS England from Sir David Nicholson last month following a worldwide search. He has asked to take a voluntary ten percent pay cut compared to his predecessor, reflecting current public sector spending pressures.