Herbalist Dr MziziMkavu
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‘Patients with cancer, heart disease and other major conditions will suffer harm and needless deaths under new NHS funding proposals, hundreds of hospital specialists have warned.
More than 300 consultants have written an open letter to the head of the health service pleading for the reversal of plans which they say will mean swingeing restrictions on care.
Under the NHS funding proposals, hospitals which provide specialist care to increasing numbers of patients will be reimbursed just half the cost of every extra case.'
Consultants have warned that plans to change funding for specialist care will lead to swingeing cuts
Patients with cancer, heart disease and other major conditions will suffer harm and needless deaths under new NHS funding proposals, hundreds of hospital specialists have warned.
More than 300 consultants have written an open letter to the head of the health service pleading for the reversal of plans which they say will mean swingeing restrictions on care.
Under the NHS funding proposals, hospitals which provide specialist care to increasing numbers of patients will be reimbursed just half the cost of every extra case.
The formula is part of attempts to divert more funds into out-of hospital care, and long-term prevention of disease.
But hospital consultants say the 50 per cent funding rate for extra cases will cause devastation, given that the numbers of patients will inevitably rise with Britain's ageing population.
Specialists including some of Britain's most eminent neuroscientists, cancer experts and cardiologists have written to Simon Stevens, the NHS chief executive, pleading with him to abandon plans which they say will cut short lives.
The letter, shared with The Telegraph, says that if the formula goes ahead, there will "inevitably be avoidable deaths as patients die on waiting lists or find that their disease has progressed during the wait for treatment, to the point that it is no longer curable."
Dr David Rosser, medical director of University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation trust, lead author of the letter, said he was deeply concerned about proposals which were "destructive" and based on a failed strategy to shift services into the community.
The letter says hospitals will be forced to turn patients away or make staffing cuts which mean longer waiting times.
"The clinical consequences of these longer waiting times and a lower quality service to patients with conditions such as heart disease, liver disease, leukaemia, complex cancers etc will be severe," it warns.
"There will inevitably be a significant number of patients suffering unnecessarily, for example by needing more extensive surgery due to their cancer progressing during the wait," it says.
The NHS England proposal, which is out to consultation until Christmas Eve, has triggered concern from specialists across the country.
Dr Rosser goes on to say in the letter: "This will give hospitals two choices, to not offer treatment to these patients, or to treat them despite the financial loss.
"The negative consequences for the patients of not being offered treatment is obvious.
"The negative consequences to all patients of hospitals being financially penalised in this way will be longer waiting times, lower staffing levels, an inability to adopt new techniques, deterioration in patient experience and other consequences of an overstretched service."
The letter is signed by 345 doctors from organisations including University Hospitals Birmingham, University College Hospital London and Cambridge University Hospitals.
Dr Rosser says in the letter that a similar funding formula is already used in emergency care, which has left them struggling to provide "adequate emergency care".
He says: "This is the latest in a long line of punitive measures aimed at hospitals during more than a decade of a commissioning strategy based on the ideology of moving more care into the community.
"The strategy has persisted despite all the evidence that community services are not capable of dealing with emergency care to a level which reduces pressure on hospitals.
"In the last few years this strategy has included the application of a similar marginal rate to emergency admissions in a failed attempt to reduce their number.
"The very evident inability of many hospitals to deal effectively with the current demand in emergency care is proof of how this strategy has eroded the NHS's ability to provide adequate emergency care."
In a separate letter to this newspaper, a leading cancer expert said the changes would devastate services for the most sick.
Simon Oberst, director of clinical development at Cambridge Cancer Centre, based at Addenbrooke's Hospital, said the plans flew in the face of promises by the health secretary to improve Britain's poor rates of cancer survival.
"Jeremy Hunt's fine words are belied by his specialist commissioners at NHS England," he writes. The senior manager of cancer services said the proposals were perverse, given recent statements from the health secretary
acknowledging that hospitals currently see 51 per cent more patients with suspected cancer than in 2010.
"If this Government truly believes that cancer is a key priority, it should put its money where its mouth is," he added.
He also raised concerns about proposed changes to other parts of the NHS funding tariff, which he said would mean an average 6 per cent cut in payments to hospitals for providing chemotherapy.
An NHS England spokesperson said: "We will listen carefully to all consultation responses on these proposals, while recognising that providers of specialised services have enjoyed income increases of over £1 billion over the past two years and now have some of the highest profit margins in the NHS – all at a time when there is also a strong case for investment in ambulance services, mental health services, primary care and A&Es."
Source:Telegraph
