GPs' feud 'to blame for £35m crisis' (From The Northern Echo)

GPs' feud 'to blame for £35m crisis'

9:21am Thursday 8th March 2007 in

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A HEALTH minister last night blamed feuding GPs and managers for the £35m funding crisis gripping the NHS in part of the region.

Ivan Lewis told a Commons debate that relations between family doctors and the four primary care trusts (PCTs) that ran the NHS in North Yorkshire until last year had been "severely damaged".

He said: "That got in the way of patients having access to the quality of care they deserve and, also, the best use of resources."

However, Mr Lewis said relations had improved since a single North Yorkshire and York PCT was created last summer.

The attack came during a debate led by York MP Hugh Bayley, on ways to reduce the £35m deficit without job losses and longer waiting times.

The PCT only succeeded in slashing its deficit from £45m - the highest of any PCT in the country - by delaying the treatment of some non-urgent patients. Procedures such as in-vitro fertilisation, epidurals for back pain, lumbar x-rays and joint injections were suspended.

It was reported yesterday that 250 patients with non-urgent conditions had been refused treatment due to the PCT's new rules.

A dispute broke out with the Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, after the PCT refused to pay for £7m of treatments carried out last year.

In the debate, Mr Bayley made a plea for the department of Health not to force the PCT into "quick cost reductions" if it meant patients would suffer. He also warned of a return to the practice under the Conservative government of emergency patients being "sent from hospital to hospital in the back of an ambulance".

The Labour backbencher said waiting lists in North Yorkshire - at 13.2 people per 1,000 - were shorter than in the region, or country, as a whole.

But he warned: "I would expect waiting times in North Yorkshire to increase as the PCT overspend is cut. If the waiting list were to get longer than in the region, or nationally, I will raise hell."

In reply, Mr Lewis did not respond directly to the plea for the PCT to be given more time, but said "financial discipline" was essential in the NHS.

The PCT yesterday responded to claims that services would be cut in a written reply to questions from county councillor Gareth Dadd.

"The board has, as one of its immediate and urgent priorities, to consult with the clinical community and members of the public and their representatives about the longer-term shape of services across the whole of North Yorkshire and the City of York," it stated.

"Discussions are at an early stage, but the PCT is committed to gaining all views of stakeholders about how the process will run."