December 15, 2005
Thursday
'Don't do any non-urgent cases until May'
Further to the previous entry, here is a letter printed in the Daily Telegraph today from a consultant surgeon:
Sir - Patricia Hewitt claims that NHS staff have not been instructed to cut back on services. I have. My colleagues have. Colleagues in other hospitals have. I have been told not to operate on non-urgent cases until May because our PCT will not pay for the treatment.Not only is this grossly unfair on those people with uncomfortable conditions that cannot be classified as urgent, but also there is the complete nonsense that at the end of this period, there will be demands for us to deal with all the backlog within a few weeks or risk financial punishment to our hospital trust. At that stage this will be impossible.
Like all health ministers, Miss Hewitt will move on to something else, leaving the professionals to pick up the pieces.
Robert Kirby, Consultant surgeon, Stoke-on-Trent
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS
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Yes, I agree. And I have to pick up the pieces most of the time as a family doctor. Hip replacements seem to be a classical operation that for some reason get repeatedly deferred. The patients blame the hospital - but it isn't their fault; the hospital blames the PCT but it isn't really their fault either. They have run out of money.
The fault, of course, is the politicians. They have introduced a bogus economy into the health service and the spin doctors use it as a tool to disguise the fact that the service is underfunded.
Posted by: Dr Crippen at December 27, 2005 08:57 PM