NHS bans on operations gamble with patients' health, senior surgeon warns

[UrbScotty]

Source: The Guardian

The NHS is gambling with patients' health by increasingly banning operations for hernias, cataracts and arthritic joints to save money, one of the UK's most senior medical figures said .

John Black, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, accused NHS primary care trusts (PCTs) of pursuing a "dangerous" course by refusing treatment to patients, who will then suffer unnecessary pain and have less chance of recovering fully.

The NHS in England needs to save £20bn by 2014-15 as part of an efficiency drive. Black said increasing numbers of trusts are postponing or axing provision of dozens of elective surgical procedures, including those for gallstones and tonsil and adenoid problems.

His intervention came ahead of the government's publication of its flagship health and social care bill on Wednesday – the radical shakeup of the NHS which will hand to GPs the power to commission services, and which has been criticised by health bosses and medical leaders.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/17/nhs-bans-operations-surgeon-warns

[JDPriestly]

1. Why would anyone want a surgery that was not necessary?

The surgical process -- the anesthetic, the open wound, the shock to the body, is quite dangerous in and of itself.

[Puzzledtraveller]

2. slippery slope

Even non life threatening conditions can quickly become life threatening. In a national health care system, presumably removing profit motivation and thus attempting to eliminate unnecessary services and operations, thus balancing costs versus demand doesn't account for the fact that people will always become ill and some may require services and operations, so if national healthcare does not address the essential cost of that healthcare, regardless of whos paying, and whos being paid, then what does it address, it's about as empty as saying you have health insurance but your deductible is so high you may as well not have insurance at all.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Gallstones are excruciating - couldn't imagine any reason to deny that one.

And a tonsillectomy saved my life. I had developed tonsillitis following strep throat; developed allergic reactions to one antibiotic after another; finally they took out the tonsils and I got well right away. I was not a kid; I was 20 at the time.

[JDPriestly]

5. Having health insurance but your deductible is so high you may as well not have

insurance at all. That is American health care -- for most Americans.

I had to go to the emergency room a few months ago. The bill was just horrendous. Fortunately, someone else had to pay.

Science and medicine can do wonderful, life-saving things. But you have to be rich to benefit from all that science.

[panzerfaust]

4. Cataract surgery, Hip & Joint replacements are on the 'unneeded' list

I have had cataract surgery on both eyes: Without that I would be blind now - just like in the Good Olde Days.

Several members of of my family have had total joints: Without this surgery some would now be wheelchair bound - again, just like in the Good Olde Days.

Politicians, now matter what the party or country, always go for the quick fix - in this case, forbidding 'elective' (ie that for non-life or immediate limb threatening conditions) surgery in order to meet the budgetary cuts the new UK Coalition (of Tory and Apparent Idiots) government has imposed - but, not-to-worry, Bankers Bonuses are still to be paid.

Can hardly wait to see what our Tories will do now that they have taken (or, more truthfully, were GIVEN) the House.

"HOPE that you can only HOPE for"

[JDPriestly]

6. Some cataract surgery is necessary; some is not.

Some joint replacements are necessary. Others are not.

I suspect we are not getting the whole story on this.

Wait until we see the cuts to Medicare. They are going to be brutal, I suspect.