hensylee
Well-known member
Guess you already know this, but just in case you missed it somehow, here's GOOD NEWS:
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UK heart patients to choose where they're treated
Dec 07 (Reuters Health) - British heart patients on long waiting lists are to be given the choice of where they are treated, Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced on Thursday.
He told the Commons that from the middle of next year every patient in England who has waited for a heart operation for 6 months would be able to choose which hospital they are treated in--public or private, at home or abroad.
The move follows the government's announcement last month that UK health spending in the coming year will rise by #1 billion more than expected.
"The resources we now have available mean that we can make a start next year to introduce this new system whereby patients choose the hospital rather than hospitals choosing the patient," Milburn said.
He told MPs that the choice being offered to heart patients would later be extended to other conditions. "It will for the first time be the patient's choice and that choice will no longer be between waiting longer for treatment and paying for treatment."
British Medical Association chairman Dr. Ian Bogle welcomed the extra funding to support patient choice but warned that the proposals could only be seen as an interim solution.
"The government must invest in the National Health Service so that patients have no need to go abroad or to private hospitals and have the choice of first-class healthcare close to home," he said in a statement.
Bogle added that medical assessment must be taken into account when deciding which patients will be treated in private hospitals or overseas-- not just the desire to cut waiting lists.
Printer Friendly Version
UK heart patients to choose where they're treated
Dec 07 (Reuters Health) - British heart patients on long waiting lists are to be given the choice of where they are treated, Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced on Thursday.
He told the Commons that from the middle of next year every patient in England who has waited for a heart operation for 6 months would be able to choose which hospital they are treated in--public or private, at home or abroad.
The move follows the government's announcement last month that UK health spending in the coming year will rise by #1 billion more than expected.
"The resources we now have available mean that we can make a start next year to introduce this new system whereby patients choose the hospital rather than hospitals choosing the patient," Milburn said.
He told MPs that the choice being offered to heart patients would later be extended to other conditions. "It will for the first time be the patient's choice and that choice will no longer be between waiting longer for treatment and paying for treatment."
British Medical Association chairman Dr. Ian Bogle welcomed the extra funding to support patient choice but warned that the proposals could only be seen as an interim solution.
"The government must invest in the National Health Service so that patients have no need to go abroad or to private hospitals and have the choice of first-class healthcare close to home," he said in a statement.
Bogle added that medical assessment must be taken into account when deciding which patients will be treated in private hospitals or overseas-- not just the desire to cut waiting lists.
