Pro-Hanly: In a response to the critique, the Department of Health yesterday issued a point-by-point response.
It says in relation to the claim the Hanly Task Force misinterpreted its research, "this is entirely inaccurate. The critique consistently misrepresents Hanly's findings."
Rejecting the suggestion that Hanly follows very closely ideas set out by the UK medical establishment in 1998, the Department says: "Hanly represents an alternative to strategies developed in other states which call for hospital and service closures."
In response to the "large volume hospitals produce better patient outcomes" element of the Barton/McNamara critique, the Department states "nowhere does the Hanly report assert that larger volume hospitals produce better outcomes.
The Hanly report does not even attempt to make this case." It says that Hanly makes no comment on efficiency related to size.
There is a major difference of opinion between the McNamara/Barton document and the Department's response on the issue of the most recent NHS report, Keeping the NHS Local. The Department says this document supports the Hanly analysis.
"There is little difference between Keeping the NHS Local recommendations on 'smaller hospitals' and the Hanly recommendations on 'local hospitals'." The Department accuses the critique of selectively quoting from the NHS document. It rejects the argument that the UK proposes to maintain a 24-hour emergency care in all centres.
On the issue of the additional 3,000 hospital beds, the Department says Hanly "called for the introduction of 3,000 additional acute beds" and argues that "nowhere does Hanly recommend transferring beds from one acute general hospital to another".