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How will the financial down turn effect neonatal care
Journal of Neonatal Nursing (2011) 17, 191
www.elsevier.com/jneo
EDITORIAL
How will the financial down turn effect neonatal care At the time of writing, the leaves are falling and we are heading into autumn. By the time you read this it is very possible that we will be into the grips of winter, snow and chilling winds. Whatever the weather this winter, the economic winds are as chilling as they can be, with daily forecasts of the worst ever national debt, bankrupt banks and falling living standards. As David Cameron put it, we are staring down a barrel. However you put it, the global economy looks grim. Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but wonder how all of this would affect neonatal care and in particular, how it is provided in the decades to come. Could the financial climate change neonatal care as we know it today? However, healthcare is a precious commodity to every citizen of the world and genuine attempts are made to protect it as far is possible and with a lot of good will and dedication the service at the front is unaffected and delivered well. Nevertheless, it’s not improbable that however politically sensitive healthcare is, it will at some point be targeted. Of course we are all aware of cutbacks in budgets and frequent calls to reduce costs and not replace staff, but how much longer will it be before the cuts are deeper and more severe, as there simply isn’t the money available. As we know neonatal care is expensive and a minority speciality and therefore becomes an easy target for managers. No doubt the peripheries of the speciality which we know are so important to the families will continue to be eroded or extra addons reduced as they are deemed non-essential,
yet any argument that suggests an earlier discharge may win its favour. Another likely scenario of the economic down turn is an increase in the loss of some smaller units and the merging of others in an effort to save money. We have already seen some examples of Trusts merging and returning to similar organisations with different names that many of us were familiar with a few decades ago. To an onlooker, a lot of additional money is spent on items like change of name badges and stationary, making the likelihood of any immediate financial gains remote, not to mention the upheaval and further downgrading of staff morale. The result is often an increase in the number of transfers to distances further away and a tighter squeeze on available cots. It isn’t all bleak as this could be stimulus for more imaginary ways to provide care especially for those babies out of the acute phase. The expansion of nanomedicine, where medical care can be as easily and as safely delivered remotely could enable much more neonatal care in the community where babies are looked after by their parents and supported by a home specialist service. The financial doom is a stimulus to look in other directions and invest in new opportunities. Developing technology is coming with a potential for exciting times. As they say every cloud has a silver lining. With that thought in mind we would like to wish all neonatal nurses a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2012. Dee Beresford E-mail address: [email protected] Available online 6 October 2011
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
1355-1841/$ - see front matter ª 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Neonatal Nurses Association. doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2011.09.005
www.elsevier.com/jneo
EDITORIAL
How will the financial down turn effect neonatal care At the time of writing, the leaves are falling and we are heading into autumn. By the time you read this it is very possible that we will be into the grips of winter, snow and chilling winds. Whatever the weather this winter, the economic winds are as chilling as they can be, with daily forecasts of the worst ever national debt, bankrupt banks and falling living standards. As David Cameron put it, we are staring down a barrel. However you put it, the global economy looks grim. Thinking about this, I couldn’t help but wonder how all of this would affect neonatal care and in particular, how it is provided in the decades to come. Could the financial climate change neonatal care as we know it today? However, healthcare is a precious commodity to every citizen of the world and genuine attempts are made to protect it as far is possible and with a lot of good will and dedication the service at the front is unaffected and delivered well. Nevertheless, it’s not improbable that however politically sensitive healthcare is, it will at some point be targeted. Of course we are all aware of cutbacks in budgets and frequent calls to reduce costs and not replace staff, but how much longer will it be before the cuts are deeper and more severe, as there simply isn’t the money available. As we know neonatal care is expensive and a minority speciality and therefore becomes an easy target for managers. No doubt the peripheries of the speciality which we know are so important to the families will continue to be eroded or extra addons reduced as they are deemed non-essential,
yet any argument that suggests an earlier discharge may win its favour. Another likely scenario of the economic down turn is an increase in the loss of some smaller units and the merging of others in an effort to save money. We have already seen some examples of Trusts merging and returning to similar organisations with different names that many of us were familiar with a few decades ago. To an onlooker, a lot of additional money is spent on items like change of name badges and stationary, making the likelihood of any immediate financial gains remote, not to mention the upheaval and further downgrading of staff morale. The result is often an increase in the number of transfers to distances further away and a tighter squeeze on available cots. It isn’t all bleak as this could be stimulus for more imaginary ways to provide care especially for those babies out of the acute phase. The expansion of nanomedicine, where medical care can be as easily and as safely delivered remotely could enable much more neonatal care in the community where babies are looked after by their parents and supported by a home specialist service. The financial doom is a stimulus to look in other directions and invest in new opportunities. Developing technology is coming with a potential for exciting times. As they say every cloud has a silver lining. With that thought in mind we would like to wish all neonatal nurses a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous 2012. Dee Beresford E-mail address: [email protected] Available online 6 October 2011
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
1355-1841/$ - see front matter ª 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Neonatal Nurses Association. doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2011.09.005