Friday, 29 March, 2024
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Controversial NHS plans to ration 'unnecessary' tests and treatments

Millions of patients in England will be stopped from having an X-ray on their sore back, hernia repair surgery or scan of their knee to detect arthritis under controversial plans from the National Health Service (NHS) and doctors to ration “unnecessary” treatment.

According to a report in The Guardian, the sweeping changes they are set to propose include many forms of surgery, as well as ways of detecting illness including CT and MRI scans, and blood tests, for cancer, arthritis, back problems, kidney stones, sinus infections and depression. Three of the procedures have since been dropped from the list. If implemented, the clampdown would involve an unprecedentedly radical restriction on patients’ right to access and doctors’ ability to recommend procedures, some of which have been used routinely for decades.

An NHS spokesperson is quoted in the report as saying the document was out of date and had not been approved or implemented. They added there was “strong support from senior doctors in the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges for action to eliminate wasteful interventions that don’t benefit patients”.

The Patients Association warned that if implemented the changes would force patients to either endure the pain of their condition or pay for private care to tackle it. Putting “barriers” in the way of people expecting to have so many previously commonplace tests and treatments would lead to “harm and distress”, said Rachel Power, the association’s CEO.

[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/nov/29/revealed-nhs-plans-to-ration-34-unnecessary-tests-and-treatments"]The Guardian report[/link]

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