WIREDGOV

Patients Association Chief Executive, Katherine Murphy, has responded to criticism from the Department of Health that the figures in its recently published report into cuts in NHS services, published this week, are not representative of the actual situation. 

“Our figures speak for themselves. The information provided to us by 62 Trusts clearly shows a drop in the areas of activity we asked about. In a small number there were rises but the overall picture was clearly one of a drop.

The Department of Health has chosen to compare our calendar year figures with figures from a section of 2010. Those figures do not include November and December of last year, when we were hearing about these problems most frequently on our Helpline.

This, coupled with the fact that only a third of trusts were willing to let us have their figures for operations carried out, means that like for like is not being compared. Getting Trusts to comply with their legal obligations to provide information like this is a frequent challenge for organisations like ours that constantly strive to ensure that the voice of patients is heard. 

We chose to ask about activity because we had heard from many sources that PCTs were trying to reduce the number of referrals being made, which would not be reflected in the waiting times. Your waiting time clock can’t start if you are not referred in the first place. 

We asked about these procedures because medical and nursing professionals, as well as patients, told us that they had concerns about them. Patients are calling into our Helpline on a regular basis and telling us that they have been denied an operation on a painful hip and knee, or told that they need to wait until the new financial year in April. Professionals are also telling us services are being cut. These are real examples from the frontline that cannot be brushed aside with statistics. 

Our figures, combined with the concerns that patients tell us, reports of a decline in pain management referrals and the worries about reductions in Elective surgery expressed by the President of the Royal College of Surgeons earlier this year, indicate a problem that the Department of Health can’t just sweep under the carpet. 

It is likely that the usual postcode lottery of care is at play once again. Patients in different communities getting different treatment from their local NHS. It brings no comfort to patient being made to wait for an operation in one part of the country to find out that nationally the picture is rosier. Every patient deserves high quality care irrespective of where they live.”