NICE (The National Institute for Clinical Excellence) has been in the news for the usual reasons lately: the rejection of new drugs based largely on financial decisions.
It is gut wrenching to see such decisions and the chasing tail discussion of the treatment postcode lottery.
Sadly the NHS does not have a bottomless purse and rather than leave the debate at the feet of NICE, proclaiming them nasty, heartless goblins, could it not be widened to identify the wider causes of our health service hemorrhaging money?
The bureaucracy and failing-before-it-starts computer system are just two points. The running and long term management of the NHS needs a critical overhaul if it is to cope with our growing and ageing population.
But patients, or are we consumers?, have to recognise our role. As a country we have become hugely greedy, dismissive and over expectant of the NHS. There is no worse example than those who give no thought to missing appointments.
I live in the the average village/town. We hit average on all those national statistics they like to throw at us. In my doctors surgery, as many do these days, there is a sign recording how many appointments were missed the previous week without the surgery being contacted. It now averages 8 hours per week.
That's the equivalent of wasting one doctor's time for a whole working day; a waste of £200 a week or £10,400 a year - FROM ONE SURGERY. There are 8700 GP surgeries in England, so are we wasting £90,480,000 in missed appointments alone? And think this is before we even hit the dizzy heights of missed hospital appointments.
Sadly I suspect the majority of these missed appointments are from people who just don't think anything of it yet are the first to mouth off when nasty NICE are reported for not approving treatments. I am quite happy for my surgery to introduce a deposit, fine or small payment system for those people who repeatedly miss appointments without notification when they have no due reason.
You know, I think you might have something!!!
Posted by: Attila the Mom | 13 August 2008 at 02:36 AM