Operations and treatments cut back as NHS orders hospitals to save money

"Access to hospital treatments is being restricted in many areas of England as the NHS struggles to balance its books, the BBC has learnt. Regional health boards have ordered some hospitals to cut back on the number of patients they are seeing, meaning hundreds of thousands of patients could have to wait longer for treatment. The rationing measures are being applied mainly to private firms doing NHS work, but multiple NHS hospitals are understood to be affected too."

"NHS managers said they were between a "rock and a hard place" trying to juggle balancing the books with tackling the hospital backlog, which currently stands at 7.4 million. Reducing waits for things like hip and knee operations and hitting the 18-week waiting time target is the government's number one priority for the health service."

"A surgeon at a private hospital said they had had to cancel all their scheduled NHS operations for the coming weeks, with some patients only given a few days' notice. They told the BBC: "I had a full day of joint surgery planned this week and patients were just told a few weeks before that their life-changing operations would not be taking place. "Many of them had been waiting over 40 weeks for treatment. It's devastating for them.""

Integrated care boards across England are ordering hospitals and private providers to reduce patient activity to meet financial targets, leading to delays for hundreds of thousands of patients. Many private firms delivering NHS-funded care have been told to cut activity, pause new referrals, or extend waits by several weeks, with some sites possibly stopping NHS work entirely. The national hospital backlog stands at 7.4 million and targets for reducing waits, including the 18-week target for operations, remain the government's top priority. Some surgeons report cancellations on short notice, affecting patients who have already waited many months.

Read at www.bbc.com