How will NHS cuts affect my area?
As the Government pushes ahead with NHS reforms, Channel 4 News looks into where cuts are already being made as the NHS tries to achieve efficiency savings.
It’s the most radical change to the National Health Service in England for more than 60 years – handing GPs the power to plan patient services and hospital care.
Despite widespread concerns throughout the NHS about the scale and speed of the reforms, the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley is pushing full steam ahead.
And as the Labour leader Ed Miliband accused the Conservatives of breaking their election pledge not to cut NHS spending in real terms, Channel 4 News has been finding out where cuts to NHS treatments are already taking place.
Cuts
There are bed reductions happening across the country, and about a fifth of trusts have admitted closing or considering closing major services such as accident and emergency or maternity units.
Individual trusts have also changed what services they will provide, in order to save money.
NHS Nottinghamshire County: reduction in treatments for low priority conditions like varicose veins and snoring, caesareans without a good medical reason, and cut the number of people going to accident and emergency departments unnecessarily.
NHS South West Essex: reduction in X rays and MRI scans, IVF treatment except for those who have been treated for cancer. Outpatient operations to be extended by six weeks, and hip operations cancelled to deal with a £53m overspend.
NHS Warwickshire: No low priority treatments, such as injections for chronic back pain, no orthopaedic surgery for six months without clearance from managers, and no IVF.
Think this sounds bad? In Arizona in the US, patients have been told to pay for vital organ transplants, as Channel4 News discovered
NHS Sheffield: no longer offers routine tonsil removal, grommet insertions, varicose vein, routine hysterectomies, or lower back surgery. Pain Management Solutions in Barnsley said the service had been discontinued because of limited clinical value.
NHS Oldham: no surgery for mild varicose veins, breast augmentation and hair loss. Strict criteria must be met before tonsils, severe varicose veins, skin tags or warts are removed, to tackle a £10m deficit.
NHS Greater Manchester: similar restrictions in place to NHS Oldham
NHS North Yorkshire and York: no new patients will be offered IVF, minor surgery at GP clinics has been stopped, and non-urgent hospital treatment has been delayed, to save £25m. Two wards have been closed at Malton and Whitby hospitals.
East Lancashire: Seventy low priority procedures could be stopped although the final decision has not been made
Barking and Havering: Reduction in elective procedures, and reduce OP attendance. Schemes implemented to avoid procedures of limited clinical effectiveness.
NHS Warrington: Suspended all IVF treatment for a year from July. The PCT has now asked GPs to delay referrals for non-urgent elective cases for eight weeks, with potential savings of under £2m. It is still assessing a number of other restrictions which could include automatic delaying of treatment for eight weeks for all non-urgent cases, restrictions on other procedures, and even suspending choice of provider. The PCT says it has to deliver £8m of cost improvements in under six months.
NHS West Kent: GPs asked to defer IVF and gender reassignment and bariatric surgery for remainder of financial year. It must save £29m – £13m of which has already been delivered – but increased demand is hitting finances.
NHS Eastern and Coastal Kent: Stopping “low priority” referrals over the winter and extending waiting times for non-urgent procedures by three weeks to 16 weeks to deal with £19m overspend.
NHS Portsmouth City: New BMI restrictions for hip and knee replacement patients, second cataract operations not normally funded, and patients requiring carpal tunnel surgery to be offered other treatments first.
NHS Bury: Temporary suspension of procedures including IVF, in September and tightened up criteria for hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery to cut £1.3m monthly overspend.
NHS Surrey: Talking to GPs about delaying treatment for smokers until they have undergone a stop smoking course; introducing pre-approval procedures for all routine surgery, stopping new IVF treatment for a year, and not funding many procedures such as acupuncture, excess skin removal and cosmetic procedures – as would hit £35m overspend without these measures.
NHS Derbyshire County and NHS Derby City: Introduced restrictions on funding treatments of limited clinical value. Hoping for savings of more than £1m for each PCT.
NHS Medway: Referrals for IVF, bariatric and gender reassignment surgery delayed until next financial year. Treatments added to low priority list, although the PCT says this was clinically driven.
NHS Norfolk: Prior approval needed for certain treatments since April, with 12 week minimum waiting time.
Figures compiled by Channel 4 News and the Health Service Journal