Maintain pressure on reforms to protect NHSGovernment will force trusts to pay for private cancer treatment
Health trusts that make cancer patients wait longer than two weeks for a specialist appointment will be forced to pay for private treatment, under new plans from the Government.
The radical shift towards an expansion of private sector involvement in cancer care and health provision will be unveiled by Gordon Brown as part of his relaunch next week.
The Prime Minister’s ‘Building Britain’s Future’ document will promise to do away with top-down targets in favour of ‘entitlements’ for people using services.
The plan proposes that if primary care trusts (PCTs) fail to arrange an appointment within a fortnight of referral from a GP, it will have to provide the cash for a private consultation.
Despite the fact that this is only expected to affect a few hundred patients as nearly all NHS trusts in England manage to hit the deadline for cancer treatment, the decision to involve the private sector in acute treatment is a major change of direction for the Government.
Currently, only elective surgery such as hip replacements and cataract surgery is provided through private treatment.
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