This is very disturbing, even if on the face of it, it seems perfectly
reasonable; if you smoke or are obese you won’t get an essential operation done
in Devon.
The health commissioning consortium is in the red and has to ‘ration’
operations. If you are in certain groups you will miss out.
It’s dangerous because health provision should be determined
by need, not by virtue.
You see, if every smoker gave up they would then have to ration
operations by some other means. How about age or by alcohol intake or by
criminal record or by I.Q.
What about by colour?
Not such a great idea. It just shows how dangerous clever
people can be when human decency goes out of the window.
OnMedica -
News
CCG
tightens up pre-surgery requirements on BMI and smoking
Louise
Prime
Thursday, 4
December 2014
A clinical commissioning group with predicted deficits
for this year of over £14m has extended requirements on weight management and
smoking before planned surgery, in order to prioritise essential services.
North, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG)
said the temporary restrictions would help it to comply with its legal duty to
live within its financial resources.
Last month
NEW Devon CCG said it would have to take “urgent and necessary” steps to
prioritise the requirements set out in the NHS Constitution. It said morbidly obese
patients (body mass index ≥35) awaiting hip and knee operations would be required
to attain a BMI below 35, or to lose 5% of their weight (whichever is the
lesser weight loss), before planned surgery. In addition, patients would have
to have quit smoking at least six weeks before planned surgery.
Yesterday
the CCG announced further measures to allow it to prioritise essential services.
It said it was temporarily extending the BMI requirement to routine surgical
procedures – but clarified that this would not apply to people needing urgently
or immediately necessary surgery, such as cancer surgery, nor to patients with
a date for surgery. It also said it was extending the quit-smoking requirement
to eight weeks before planned surgery. However, it confirmed that “at this
time” it would not be restricting in-vitro fertilisation or caesarean sections
on medical grounds.
The CCG
also agreed temporary changes to: its choice of drugs to treat wet age-related
macular degeneration; shockwave therapy for tendon problems and bursitis;
restrictions on certain types of shoulder surgery; restrictions on removal of
earwax in hospitals; treating cataracts in each eye separately; and restrictions
on additional hearing aids. It said it expects to announce further measures “in
due course”.
NEW Devon
CCG chair Dr Tim Burke said: “All of these temporary measures relate to planned
operations and treatments, not those which must be done as an emergency or to
save lives.
“Clinicians
have carefully reviewed a number of measures, taking into account the impacts
of their temporary withdrawal to decide which we will implement.
“We
recognise that each patient is an individual and where their GP or consultant
feels that there are exceptional circumstances we will convene a panel of
clinicians to consider the case.”
The CCG
said last year it returned a £14.5m deficit, and had originally predicted the
same this year – but it had “gradually lost confidence” in meeting this, as
demand for services is beyond what it can afford.
Dr Burke
said: “The services we are temporarily restricting were chosen for a number of
reasons … We don’t under estimate how difficult it will be for some people to
lose weight or stop smoking and we will continue to support them. If they are
able to do this it will also have long-term health benefits for them.
“We are
committed to being open about what we are considering and how the decisions are
being made. We are publishing our decisions and producing information for the
patients affected about the available treatment options for them.”
But he
said: “The CCG has a legal duty to live within its financial resources and the
prioritisation of services is helping us to do that.”
If you don’t have enough resources you need to fight to get
the funds the people of Devon need.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutthenhs.blogspot.comContact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
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