"Suffering, pain and discomfort for thousands": Nearly half of NHS trusts impose rationing on treatments
Mirror, 28 Nov 2012
In the past year 52,000 people have been denied NHS operations for varicose veins, tonsillitis, eye operations and other elective procedures
"Clear evidence": Andy Burnham MP
Getty
Thousands of patients are being refused treatment for cataracts and other ailments because of NHS rationing, new figures have shown.
In the past year 52,000 people have been denied NHS operations for varicose veins, tonsillitis, eye operations and other elective procedures.
Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said it was the clearest evidence so far of how the Government was rationing treatment because of cuts to the health service.
“Coalition policies are producing real hardship, suffering, pain and discomfort for thousands of patients,” he said.
Figures from a Freedom of Information Act request showed nearly half of the 100 primary care trusts had imposed restrictions on which treatments they will fund.
These included 16 trusts which had curbed funding for cataract operations, 24 trusts that had placed restrictions on tonsillectomy and 21 which had limits on treatment for varicose veins.
In total 125 treatments had been restricted or stopped altogether in the last two years.
Of those, eight treatments emerged as the most commonly restricted - cataracts, varicose veins, carpal tunnel syndrome, which affects nerves in the wrist, tonsillectomies, skin lesions, Dupuytren’s contracture, a hand disease, myringotomy, which helps hearing loss, and hysteroscopy, used for diagnosing problems in the womb.
“Many of them will leave patients in pain, discomfort, unable to work or, sadly, facing the choice of having to go private given how crucial these treatments are,” Mr Burnham said.
He claimed primary care trusts were having to foot the £1billion costs of making staff redundant under NHS reforms when the money should be spent on frontline service.
He said the Government could “stop this today” by ordering PCTs to lift the restrictions.
“They are refusing to do so. How many more patients are they going to let suffer before they decide to act?”
Health Minister Dan Poulter said health rationing was “far worse” when Labour was in power.
“We are very proud of our record. Sixty thousand fewer patients are waiting more than 18 weeks than they were under the previous Government, and over 16,000 fewer patients are waiting longer than a year than in 2010.
“Waiting times are coming down, infection rates in hospitals are coming down and people are getting better care.
“It’s this Government that ended the worst scandal in healthcare of all, which was that people with cancer were not getting access to the drugs they needed,” he said.