17.01.11
‘Routine’ operations being denied on cost grounds
Non-emergency operations are increasingly being ‘rationed’ despite the potential long-term health effects, reports say.
Many PCTs are opting to restrict scores of operations except in extreme circumstances, including treatment for cataracts, joints, tonsil removal, skin lesions and hernias.
John Black, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, told the Guardian newspaper: “More and more NHS trusts are introducing more and more of this sort of backdoor rationing by imposing longer and longer waiting times for surgery on patients, or indeed stopping doing certain procedures altogether.
“This is a dangerous path for the NHS to be adopting, because of the long-term health problems that will inevitably be built up if operations designed to prevent long-term harm are delayed or stopped.”
He said operations like cataract removal should be routine for the NHS and that putting joint operations in the same category as cosmetic procedures was “odd”.
NHS medical director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh told the newspaper that decisions should be made clinicians in line with NICE guidance.
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