The Patients Association is running a survey to collect patient views in regard to the above consultation and on how previous efficiency cuts have affected you. Please do complete the survey:. This is taken from their website:
NHS England has launched a public consultation on whether to limit the prescribing of eight items, in an effort to save almost £70m per year.
The Patients Association will be responding to this consultation, and would like to hear your views to inform our response. How will the restriction of these types of medicines affect you? Do you agree with NHS England’s efficiency drive? NHS England launched their first wave of guidance on low-value medicines a year ago – has any of this affected you in the past 12 months?
While we’re interested in hearing about people’s experiences of rationing more generally, this consultation could be particularly relevant to people in England who:
Have type 2 diabetes
Take medicine for their heart rhythm
Use bath or shower preparations for their skin conditions.
We have responded to previous consultations on this topic and our view has been clear: NHS England must approach this with the experiences of patients in mind – not with financial considerations as their primary concern. We continue to make this point to NHS England, and your comments and thoughts to our survey will strengthen our collective voice. You can complete the survey here – it should take around ten minutes to do so.
I'm in the US but it seems this 'selective care approach' has potential to hurt more people than it might help. And seems to be more of a global problem as time passes. Good healthcare becomes less available to the masses when decisions about necessary or unnecessary care are taken out of the hands of physicians and controlled by those who are in charge of the bottom line.
Case in point: I have a friend in my senior living who told me she has been denied coverage for knee replacements because she is too overweight. Interesting because older overweight patients sometimes suffer knee pain so severe it is incapacitating. Also when the insurance companies won't spend the money to help them stay active and independent they risk far greater costs by paying for long term assisted living or nursing home care.
Patients suffer on another level when their pain is so bad and they are denied effective pain meds because in their infinite wisdom lawmakers have made obtaining controlled substance drugs difficult to obtain by people who need and don't abuse them.
US insurance companies have decided that if a patient's BMI (body mass index) is over a certain number based on their height, weight, etc knee replacements will not be covered unless they lose enough weight to comply with the guidelines.
It's catch 22 because often these patients use walkers and can barely walk much less effectively exercise for weight loss.
To me this is a way of saying the suffering caused by daily living with constant pain is not important. And patients usually have no way of knowing what new laws insurance companies have passed until they run afoul of the system.
Wherever I lived I would try to do what I could to keep good patient care a priority and not let it be usurped by greedy lawmakers who if their laws someday apply to them are financially able to pay out of pocket for what they need. irina1975 (US)
PS Lynn. I did not take the survey as I am in the US but will be happy to if it is allowed. Thanks irina
As this survey is about proposals for the NHS in England, we are only asking patients in England to take part. The NHS is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I'm not sure NHS Wales will ever catch up with NHS England. My family are in England and I do get rather envious of the care they seem to receive, especially waiting times and referrals.
Actually, I'm rather glad because my endo in England has no jurisdiction in Wales over my T3 prescription... and my GP is happy to continue prescribing it.
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