The interesting thing about the call for charges to made for certain treatments is where it comes from.
The argument has not been put by some right-wing think tank. It has come from the Association of Directors of Public Health. So it has come from within the NHS. This represents another milestone in the change of attitude to the NHS. It seems like a long, gradual shift both of attitude and actuality.
Dentisty on the NHS has gone to a large degree. It is difficult for most people to get sustained physiotherapy. I suspect that the same goes for osteopathy. Care for the elderly has been cut back. Now part of the NHS itself suggests dropping various treatments.
The background is quite simple. The NHS is incompetent as an organisation. Its costs are high, its bureaucratic overhead is enormous, it fails to make full use of its assets and it has powerful unions which contribute to the above. Meanwhile the politicians know there is a limit to have much people are prepared to pay in tax. So as the costs grow, the only way to keep the taxpayer half-way happy is gradually to lop off some of the branches of what the NHS does. This process has been going on for a long time. It has continued through the big increase in NHS spending and it will go on into the future.
Here is the the recent news about cutting back treatments:
The NHS should consider billing patients for ineffective treatments and drop all prescription charges, senior public health doctors said yesterday.Spiralling health costs had to be controlled, said Dr Tim Crayford, the president of the Association of Directors of Public Health, and one way would be to charge patients for treatments for which there was not good evidence that they worked or when cheaper options were available.
Their list includes insertion of grommets, surgery for benign moles, varicose veins procedures, hysterectomy for heavy bleeding, carpel tunnel surgery for sore wrists, tonsils removal and homeopathy.
Dr Crayford also said not offering cataract or hip replacement surgery too early in the progression of the disease, could be added to the list.
He called for national standards to be set as to when NHS surgery should be offered for these complaints.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS
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I wonder whether IVF, 'gender realignment' surgery and methadone treatment would be chargeable.
Posted by: Ian Bennett at January 31, 2007 12:17 PM
Bits are also being cut off so as to ensure that PFI debts are serviced. Certain interests are doing well out of all this - and Patsy is happy to deliver (i.e. hand over).
Posted by: lost_nurse at January 31, 2007 06:08 PM
If the NHS knows that some treatments are ineffective and there is "not good evidence that they work", the real question is why it is doing them now, not whether it should bill patients in future. Who is recommending these operations and why? Is it in someone's interest to perform ineffective operations?
Posted by: HJHJ at January 31, 2007 07:21 PM
I loved The Welfare State We're In and every time I hear the word healthcare come out of Hillary Clinton's mouth, I think of it and shudder.
Posted by: Ashley at February 2, 2007 10:47 PM
I don’t know what the ‘success rate’ is for grommets, but I do know from personal experience that they can be successful as they have relieved my young daughter of excruciating earache and enabled her to hear and participate at school.
Are we now to have an NHS which only performs operations which are guaranteed to be a success every time – a fairly small list – so that the government can massage the figures to suit themselves? God help us all.
Posted by: Rob Clark at February 6, 2007 05:09 PM
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I couldn't breath at night because of tonsilitis when I was young, but I guess soon the luxury of breath will not be available on the NHS.
Posted by: nic at January 30, 2007 07:49 PM