300 miss vital NHS treatment

11:55am Tuesday 19th June 2007

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THREE hundred North Yorkshire patients have had their hospital treatment blocked this year by a controversial health panel.

Those who have been rejected include varicose vein patients who cannot all get surgery, even if they are in pain.

North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) - the body which pays for NHS services in the county - introduced a range of money-saving measures at the start of this year in an attempt to reduce its multi-million pound debt.

A wide range of hospital operations was suspended - and GPs were asked to send exceptional cases to a "prior approval panel" run by the PCT. The panel had the power to either reject or grant treatment.

Our Let Your Doctor Decide campaign called for this panel to be scrapped, after it caused uproar among doctors and patients.

In April, many of the operations that had been suspended were made available again. Other procedures, such as IVF and some back pain injections, are still only accessible for exceptional cases through the prior approval system.

In the first two months of its operation, the prior approval panel had already sent 250 patients back to their GPs, saying they could not have the treatment their doctor thought they needed.

Just under that number were allowed to have the operations they had been sent for.

Now The Press has obtained new figures which show that the number of people being rejected by the panel has slowed down dramatically.

Between January and June 11 this year, there have been 1,446 referrals to the panel, of which 300 have been passed back to their GPs.

Dr David Geddes, primary care medical director for the PCT, said patients who were now being refused by the panel included those suffering from varicose veins.

Under the PCT's latest proposals, only patients who are suffering from bleeding or skin changes because of their varicose veins will be eligible for surgery.

Those whose condition is simply causing them pain will not get an operation. Instead, their doctors are advised to carry out "conservative measures" such as wearing support stockings.

Dr Geddes said: "The work of the exceptions panel is less now. It's working more on focusing on some of the more complex cases.

There are still patients who are on occasion being referred where the PCT has agreed with secondary care providers that these patients are of low priority and we aren't currently funding them."

As reported in The Press last week, the PCT is expecting its money-saving measures will have saved £13million - reducing its overall debt to £32million in 2006/7.