By Lucy Phillips | 29 July 2011
NHS trusts are restricting patient choice and competition between health care providers, a report published today has concluded.
The NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel found that some primary care trusts were deliberately delaying non-urgent operations to save money. The trusts expected some patients would go for private treatment instead, removing them from waiting lists. However, others might die and therefore no longer need treatment.
The panel, commissioned by the government and the foundation trust watchdog Monitor in December, is reviewing how the government's ‘any willing provider’ policy is working in routine elective care.
It also found ‘endemic’ practices of other anti-competitive behaviour among PCTs. These include block contracts, which favour local NHS hospitals ahead of private and other providers, and vetting GP referrals to ensure patients are treated by favoured providers.
The panel warns that the expected results of the any willing provider policy – better value for money and higher quality services – are at ‘serious risk’ of not realising their potential.
CPP chair Lord Carter said: ‘Commissioners have a difficult job in the current financial climate, but patients’ rights are often being restricted without a valid and visible reason. Crucially, it is the lack of transparency that surrounds certain restrictions on patient choice that is of real concern.’
The government is currently preparing to expand the role of competition in the health service.
Commenting on the findings, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: ‘This is exactly why we need to put patients' interests first. Too many PCTs have been operating in a cynical environment where they can game the system – and in which political targets, particularly the maximum 18-week waiting time target, are used to actually delay treatment.
‘When GPs, specialist doctors and nurses are making the decisions, as they will under our plans, they will plan care on the basis of the clinical needs of patients and their right to access the best service, including the least possible waiting time.’
David Stout, director of the NHS Confederation's Primary Care Trust Network, said the report's claims caused 'unnecessary public anxiety and alarm' when in fact access to NHS treatment had improved markedly over the past ten years.
But Stout acknowledged that the CCP was right to point out that in some areas of the country financial pressures, coupled with growing demand, have led to increased waiting times.
He added: 'It is important to understand that these are routine cases, rather than emergency cases. Nevertheless, these patients should still be seen and treated as quickly as possible since their quality of life may be affected or they may be in pain because of their condition. The NHS has made great strides to reduce waiting times for routine care and will want to maintain this.'
