NHS 'waiting for patients to die or go private' to save money

[LeftishBrit]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-waiting-for-patients-to-die-or-go-private-to-save-money-2328055.html

Also see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14337897


'NHS Trusts are deliberately delaying operations hoping that patients will either go private or die waiting, according to an official report published yesterday.


The Co-operation and Competition Panel highlighted "endemic" unfair practices in care delivery in parts of England as health trusts come under pressure to cut £20bn in expenditure over the next four years.

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) impose "pain and inconvenience" by making patients wait longer than necessary for operations, hoping they will leave waiting lists "either by dying or by paying for their own treatment," claims the report, details of which were published today in the Daily Telegraph.

One concerning tactic used by Primary Care Trusts is blocking patient choice, with half of the 151 PCTs guilty of the practice, according to the report. "Commissioners have a difficult job in the current financial climate, but patients' rights are often being restricted without a valid and visible reason," said the panel's Chairman, Lord Carter of Coles.

Two-thirds of health trusts in England are rationing treatments for "non-urgent conditions" including hip and knee replacements and cateract operations, The Independent revealed yesterday.'


Of course, the government will doubtless blame the NHS, rather than the cuts.

[oldironside]

1. Disgusting

and I'm sure all those good hearted people who voted Lib Dem because they hate the Tories as much as the rest of us are feeling as angry as a concerned liberal can.

With a bit of luck the hacking affair will bring this dreadful sub-Thatcherite government down, and the next election will be a referendum on the health service without Murdoch's influence.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Is this part of the background ?

EU rules push up NHS waiting time: Thousands more face 18-week wait for surgery.

Hosptial waiting times have begun to rise because of European rules limiting the number of hours junior doctors can work.

The amount of time patients had to wait for treatment on the NHS was in decline but the rules limiting junior doctors to a 48-hour week, which were introduced last August, have ended this.

It means that thousands more patients are now having to wait more than 18 weeks for surgery.

Ministers now want to renegotiate Britain's position on the European Working Time Directive in Brussels and are considering a possible optional exclusion for NHS staff.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300159/EU-rules-push-NHS-waiting-time-Thousands-face-18-week-surgery-wait.html#ixzz1TUQ0EYn1


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300159/EU-rules-push-NHS-waiting-time-Thousands-face-18-week-surgery-wait.html#ixzz1TUPuYZVz

[LeftishBrit]

3. While this may not help, the main problem seems to be something else...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=191x34188

[SoCalDem]

4. With supposedly good insurance, it took my son SIX months to get an MRI

here, and then another 4 months before they put a 9" incision on his spine..:grr:

all the while he was in agony, and had to put up with an investigator who was following him around trying to prove he was scamming the disability people..:grr: