Patients face long delays for routine operations
PATIENTS NEEDING hip replacements or cataract removal are facing long delays while doctors battle a new wave of NHS rationing, an investigation suggests.
Freedom of Information data obtained by the
shows a rise in the number of special requests for funding now being lodged for procedures that were once considered routine.
Cataract removal, hip replacements, knee surgery, procedures for carpal tunnel syndrome and help for mental health problems are among those treatments now needing to go through an extra layer of NHS red tape.
Overall, the number of exceptional funding requests made by GPs in England to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) rose to 73,900 last year, a 47 per cent increase from 2013/14, when they made 50,200.
In just the past 12 months alone, there has been a 20 per cent rise, from 60,400, the BMJ data from 169 CCGs showed.
Just over half of the requests made in 2016/17 were approved by CCGs, although some patients are then waiting months to start their treatment.
Most of the funding requests are for cosmetic procedures, such as removing skin tags and varicose veins, or for IVF, which the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) says should be routinely funded but is not.
And between 2013/14 and 2016/17, the number of requests for hip and knee surgery rose from 49 to 899.
Meanwhile, the number of referrals for cataract removal in England rose from 359 in 2013/14 to 1,034 in 2016/17.
Stephen Cannon, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons, condemned the restrictions on hip and knee surgery as a misguided attempt to save money by reducing the number of procedures carried out. He told the “By mandatorily requiring prior approval from the individual funding request service before referral, these CCGs are unfairly and unnecessarily prolonging the time patients will spend in pain, possibly immobile and unable to carry out daily tasks or to work.”
Richard Vautrey, a GP in Leeds and deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s General Practitioners Committee, called for “an open and honest discussion” on this type of rationing. He urged NHS England to set clear guidelines on which treatments should be routinely available.
Julie Wood, chief executive of NHS Clinical Commissioners, the organisation that represents CCGs, said commissioners had to make “difficult decisions” over which services to fund.