PROFESSIONAL SUPPLIES
O
ne in 10 GPs say they have seen cancer care waiting times rise and nearly a quarter are referring patients to private sector providers.
Private health is experiencing a rise in business because of this, according to the second largest such company in the country, Spire Healthcare, which carried out the survey of 500 GPs.
Its clinical director, Dr Jean- Jacques de Gorter, said: “It is an inevitable consequence. We are already seeing waiting lists for elective admissions and diagnos- tics going up.”
Among the doctors surveyed, 77% said they were seeing cuts in fertility services in their area, 70% were seeing reductions in weight- loss treatments, and 40% knew of restrictions to ophthalmology services. Almost a third (30%) of GPs said there were restrictions on orthopaedic services.
The survey suggested that the cuts were not only being made in areas deemed non-urgent, as more than half of the doctors, 54%, said waiting times had gone up for musculoskeletal work and 42% of GPs report a rise in wait- ing times for neurology treatment.
Although fewer people have pri- vate medical insurance due to increases in redundancy levels
72 | national health executive May/Jun 11
and loss of healthcare benefits, de Gorter said he expects more people to use private medical care as the NHS is forced to delay less critical operations.
“The NHS has to find £20bn of savings between now and 2015 and it is almost certain they will use forms of rationing and delay to achieve those savings,” he said.
However the British Medical Association argued that rather than referring patients to the pri- vate sector, NHS staff should discuss how best to organise ser- vices in such testing times.
A spokesman said: “It is not sur- prising that patient services are under pressure, given that the NHS is being asked to find ef- ficiency savings of £20bn at the same time as implementing po- tentially destabilising reforms at break-neck speed.
“All healthcare staff understand that we are in a difficult economic climate, but this should not result in damaging financial short cuts in patient care.
“Doctors and other healthcare professionals must be involved in decisions about how best to organise services in these testing times, as they have an established track record of producing innova- tive reforms that both improve pa- tient care and reduce costs.”
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