Members of central government have listened to older people – now it’s the turn of local government.Local authority officers and members will meet with older people this spring in a series of national conferences around the country.

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The results of the National Beds Inquiry are likely to have a major influence on management thinking in the NHS.They show that the trend for the numbers of beds in NHS hospitals to reduce year on year has got to stop. The number of NHS beds has been falling for over 30 years – from a peak of 250,000 to 147,000 now – in many cases due to the positive moves towards increased day case surgery and shorter stays in hospital. A similar pattern is seen in other OECD countries.

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