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These were the findings of Reform a Think Tank with links to the Conservative Party which were released this week. In a drive for more efficiency, they have been putting pressure upon the leading candidates in the forthcoming elections, to drastically cut spending on the NHS, including reducing the overall number of available beds in the UK.
This has been reported this week throughout the media, but, in particular the BBC Health website gave it extensive and fair coverage, asking both the think tank, and front end users of the hospitals themselves exactly their positions on the situation.
This is an intriguing scenario, for everybody in Great Britain, as there are two finely balanced which are at stake here 1) the quantity of medical coverage and 2) the quality of medical cover.
The argument given by the think tank is that if the number of places were cut then resources could be focused more acutely, and this would also bring in more competition, in order that the NHS rivals the care provided via private health insurance. Many members of the public counter this argument by the logic given by Aneurin Bevan, the post war architect of the National Health Service in his statement "from the cradle to the grave", in the understanding that EVERYBODY should be treated the same no matter the circumstances, and sometimes that means overcapacity.
I'm sure this will be of huge importance in the way the election is decided, up until now neither side has put forward a fully comprehensive case as to why the people cannot have both quantity and quality.

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