David Oliver: Is Lord Prior right about scrapping beds?

On 5 October the Daily Mirror reported that the Conservative “NHS productivity minister,” Lord Prior, had told the management consultancy McKinsey that the English NHS should scrap half of its hospital beds.1 Prior had form: in his recent role as supposedly neutral chair of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) he courted media attention for personal views.

For instance, he told the Daily Telegraph that we needed to start closing beds quickly to prevent the NHS falling over as urgent activity increased.2 He called for more competition and learning from US organisations, comparing hospitals with refrigerators, and predicted …