NO CASH SO DOCTORS DISMISSED IN UK

Two doctors at a leading NHS hospital have become the first consultant surgeons to be made redundant as a result of the financial crisis in the health service. Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which has a 33 million pound deficit, has given two consultant gastrointestinal surgeons, one full-time and one part-time, three months’ notice. One of the surgeons, Simon Cole, is a former president of the Association of Surgeons in Training, while the name of the other has not been disclosed.

Jonathan Fielden, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) consultants’ committee, said: “This is a deplorable step that shows the state of the financial crisis that many trusts are in. This will have a significant impact on patient care.” A trust spokeswoman confirmed the trust had to save 33 million pounds this year, adding: “A review indicates, among other things, a reduced number of gastrointestinal procedures. We are, therefore, matching our capacity to the reduced use of this service.”

The move comes as Debbie Abrahams, chairwoman of Rochdale NHS Trust, disclosed this weekend that she was resigning her post because of her anger at the use of private health companies in the NHS. At this week’s BMA annual conference its chairman James Johnson is expected to say the government’s NHS reforms have delivered poor value for money. He said that despite massive funding increases there has not been a dramatic improvement in patient care. “The NHS has got better, but not commensurately better, for the very large amounts of money spent,” he said.

Two official reports this week — one from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and one from the government’s NHS inspectorate — are expected to show patients are still receiving substandard care. The OECD report will show that, in some areas, the NHS is lagging behind health services in 30 other European countries. It is expected to disclose: * Death rates from breast cancer in Britain are higher than in most other European countries. * Britain has fewer radiotherapy machines for treating cancer than most other European states and only a fraction of the numbers in France, Switzerland and Denmark. * The NHS has fewer doctors than European neighbours and almost half the ratio of doctors to patients as Greece and Italy.

The NHS inspectorate’s report is expected to say that services for chronic lung disease, which affects 3m patients in Britain, have been badly neglected. The Healthcare Commission will say that NHS treatment for conditions such as emphysema and bronchitis needs to be improved urgently. Chronic lung disease kills more than 30,000 every year, almost double the European average. The commission will add that patients suffering from respiratory disease have been given the wrong diagnosis or have not been diagnosed at all, leading to them being denied care. It will say the equipment available in the NHS to diagnose chronic lung disease is ineffective and that doctors and nurses do not know enough to operate the machines and interpret the results. Patients who are diagnosed with lung disease do not receive adequate health checks resulting in them losing out on necessary treatment.

Patient care could be further damaged by the government’s radical reforms, Johnson will tell the BMA conference. He says the government’s policy of allowing patients to choose to be treated at private hospitals could undermine the NHS. He will warn that district general hospitals running casualty departments, intensive care units and maternity wards could close as treatment is siphoned off to privately run treatment centres. The Department of Health said patient care had improved dramatically, with record funding resulting in more doctors and nurses, wider access to medicines and the shortest-ever waiting times

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Rage at dental wait in Australian public medicine

More than 50,000 Queenslanders have given up trying to see a public dentist because of waiting times of up to five years, new figures reveal. Opposition health spokesman Bruce Flegg said the dental service was on the verge of collapse despite State Government claims of record funding. Dr Flegg said the waiting periods had resulted in general dental clinic treatments falling almost 20 per cent from 296,000 patients in 2004-05 to 240,000 in 2005-06. School dental clinic treatments had also fallen, from 670,000 to 630,000, over the same period. "Queenslanders are not getting value for the huge injection of taxpayer funds," Dr Flegg said.

The Australian Dental Association said in December that waiting times for Queensland public dental services were up to five years for a basic check-up. The Government's inability to attract staff meant the situation was unlikely to get better, it said.

The Opposition said it was not surprising that with fewer patients accessing treatment, dental emergencies at public hospitals had jumped 10 per cent. "These figures just blew me away . . . it reveals the extent of government mismanagement," Dr Flegg said.

Gold Coast pensioner Wayne Webb said he gave up waiting after three years - using his life savings of $5000 to get new teeth. Mr Webb, 52, told The Sunday Mail he first went for treatment at a clinic attached to the Gold Coast Hospital in 2003 and was told he was on an emergency waiting list. "They said to just wait. But I was in so much pain, I could not eat, I had to do something," Mr Webb said. "Stuff Mr Beattie. He promises all this money in the Budget to fix health, but what has he done for me? Nothing."

Health Minister Stephen Robertson said the Government would spend $137 million in 2006-07 to provide free public dental services - up $5.3 million on 2005-06. His office provided figures for the number of dental treatments in 2005-06 but no comparisons with the previous year. He said Queenslanders enjoyed Australia's "most comprehensive" public dental service and the Government would continue to push for the federal scheme to be reinstated.

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

Comments? Email me here. If there are no recent posts here, the mirror site may be more up to date. My Home Page is here or here.

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