Source: Guardian >> Read full article and comment
By Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor
Operations refused mirror those in McKinsey cost-cutting report for Department of Health
The NHS identified £700m of savings by ‘decommissioning’ basic surgical procedures in a recent report. Photograph: Royal Children’s Hospital/Handout/EPA
Surgeons claim cost-cutting lies at the heart of moves to “ration patient care”. Last week the Department of Health revealed a new age of austerity in the NHS – signalling that trusts would have to save £1.5bn by reducing “unnecessary prescriptions and hospital referrals”.
The situation is already critical said Alan Johnson, the president of ENT UK which represents surgeons who specialise in the ear, nose and throat. In a straw poll this month, ENT surgeons said 30 trusts had restricted simple procedures “which they would not fund”.
Johnson said what would in the past have been considered routine surgeries for removing ear glue in small children and taking out tonsils have been “withdrawn effectively from the health service. These procedures have been classified as of low clinical value. But a child who cannot hear has his or her development impaired. Acute tonsillitis in the worst case can see patients admitted to emergency wards which is much more expensive than removing their tonsils.”….Continue reading
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