NHS waiting lists and the wider consequences | Letters

As one of the thousands of people waiting for a hip replacement, I’d like to highlight some of the consequences of longer waiting lists (NHS axes key 18-week target for operations, 31 March). I am 66 and until last June was fit and active. I have reached 19 weeks on the waiting list and am hoping to get notified of a cancellation any day. I have had to give up a range of volunteering activities and also my fitness classes. The pain, despite medication, prevents me from getting out much and increases social isolation. I fear that even after my operation I will be out of the habit of being active and it will take a lot of willpower to get back to how I was.

Longer waiting lists will lead to us “active older people” being unable to undertake community volunteering. Has the cost of this ever been factored in? The impact will be exacerbated by the rising retirement age. Younger retired people will disappear from the ranks of volunteers. Many people delay seeing their GP until pain levels are intolerable. Those in the know will go early and pressurise GPs for referral for orthopaedic assessment, to get into the system. The local waiting list is based on time, not on need. The government needs to consider more sophisticated measures of need for elective surgery and to take into account the wider impact on society of longer waiting lists.

I feel lucky that a new hip is even possible. Had I lived in my grandparents’ time this would be a life sentence of pain. I would be willing to pay more tax to fund the NHS and social care. Time for government to grasp that nettle.
Sue Craythorne
Exeter

• In addition to the consequences of later retirement covered in Amelia Hill’s splendid piece (A world without retirement, 29 March), what about the holes currently filled by volunteers in a range of services? In my borough, Haringey, the parks department has only skeleton staff. Our unique nature reserve, Queen’s Wood, is looked after entirely by volunteers. Local parks and green corners are also looked after by an army of volunteers. How about the local food bank and soup kitchen? They are volunteer-run. And in many boroughs, library opening hours are maintained only because of volunteers. I could go on.
Alison Watson
London

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NHS waiting lists and the wider consequences | Letters

NHS cashes in on private payers as waiting lists soar

Income received by NHS hospital trusts from private patients has risen by 23% in the last four years, as waiting lists for non-paying patients have soared.

Under the government’s reforms, hospitals have been given the right to raise 49% of their funds through non-NHS work, often from patients seeking to avoid waiting for surgery. Prior to this, there had been a 2% cap on income that could be raised from private patients.

Ministers revealed in parliament that in 2015-16, hospitals in England received £558m from patients choosing to pay private – up from £454m four years earlier. The figures come as the number of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment has increased by 54% during the same period. Of those treated in October, more than 360,000 patients had been waiting for 18 weeks or more for treatment, according to the latest data from NHS England, compared to 234,030 in October 2011.

The shadow health minister, Justin Madders, said: “This government is presiding over a two-tier system, where the wealthiest in society can pay to jump the queue. The Tories’ disastrous top-down reorganisation has allowed hospitals to fill up to half of their beds with private patients while leaving NHS patients waiting longer on ever-growing waiting lists.

“The NHS is stretched to breaking point at the moment, so for it to be seeing more and more private patients is an unforgivable position to be in. Access to healthcare should be based on a patient’s needs, not ability to pay for treatment, and this government needs to act in the interests of all patients, not just those who can stump up cash for quick treatment.”

NHS cashes in on private payers as waiting lists soar

For Sale: Lists Of Guys Who Take Viagra

A developing variety of Web sites offer discounts, unique bargains or the possibility to win a contest to those willing to share individual information this kind of as get in touch with specifics, likes and dislikes and even overall health difficulties.

For example, Florida data broker Consider 5 Remedies advertises that it has medical ailment info on more than 42 million named folks. They collect info on circumstances like constipation, depression, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, stroke, incontinence, bedwetting, cancer, bipolar disorder and erectile dysfunction.

It rents its lists, which can also contain a wide range of way of life and demographic info, to clientele who, according to a media kit on their webpage, contain Comcast Comcast, eBay eBay, Procter &amp Gamble Procter &amp Gamble, Nissan, Fidelity and AIG.

For several many years Data brokers and their practices attracted tiny focus, but regulators in Washington have stepped up their examination of on the web data gathering and relevant promoting in the final 12 months or two. For instance, final week Senators Carl Levin and John McCain held a Senate subcommittee hearing on “Online Promoting and Hidden Hazards to Consumer Security and Data Privacy.”

Many internet sites that motivate visitors to enter their private details for reductions. Take 5′s  health data comes from their site known as T5 Healthful Living, which tells guests that by opting in and giving information “you will receive information and unique provides with useful coupons and financial savings on the most current items accessible.”

Its inquiries can be rather intimate this kind of as “Have you suffered from the inability to get or preserve an erection?” and “Have you had the desire for intercourse, but have been unable to get or maintain and erection?” Why would a man volunteer such information and click a box that authorizes the site and its “trusted third party partners to use my private and family details to send me electronic mail, postal, Television, radio and digital display promoting and valuable data to me”?

I wondered if the millions who gave healthcare details truly understood that their information would then be openly offered. So back in 2012 I asked Tara Eliel-Finger, Consider 5 Solution’s director of record management, whether or not she may share a handful of hundred names for me to get in touch with.

Initially she stated yes but asked to see a sample mail piece I would send. I wrote her and proposed to request relatively innocuous questions such as “Do you recall filling out a survey offering your individual data? If so, please inform me about it,” and “What kinds of direct mail or email offers have you acquired? Have you located such provides valuable?”

I never ended up sending the concerns to a couple of hundred folks Eliel-Finger in no way responded in the following months regardless of many adhere to up calls and emails. When I ran into her at a conference a yr later, she mentioned only that overall health data info such as individuals with erectile dysfunction was a small part of their all round company.

Web page from a promotional brochure for information broker Take 5 Solutions.

Organization founders Alex Radetich and Richard Gluck did not respond to requests for comment this week.

Direct marketers generally say that their efforts provide an essential services by focusing on goods to people most interested and weeding out individuals unlikely to be interested.

For example, Patti Hart, CEO of slot machine producer IGT, welcomes marketing personalization as she usually receives offers for goods she has no interest in, such as for mortgages for decrease revenue buyers and catalogs for goods she does not want. “I get things on Viagra – I indicate, I am a lady, I do not require it!” she says. “I would rather have personalized offerings in exchange for my information than be barraged by a bunch of offers that are meaningless to me.”

Other people say offering personalized data on healthcare problems goes as well far, due to the fact numerous, even as they choose to participate in the survey, may not understand that info about them can be grouped collectively from a lot of locations into a central file.

“We may possibly share the personalized data that you provide to us and we could perform with other enterprise (sic) to bring picked 3rd party promoting gives to our members,” Consider 5 says in its fine print which is made up of a few typos and grammatical mistakes. “In the program of their enterprise routines, these companies could merge your data with other information.”

Mike Petrullo has access to a lot of personal data as president and chief executive officer of HireRight. His organization is component of the multi-billion dollar business that offers background checks on occupation applicants — with the new hire’s permission.

For Sale: Lists Of Guys Who Take Viagra

Public dental waiting lists could surge due to $390m budget deferral

Public dental waiting lists could balloon, dentists are warning, as the commonwealth defers a Nationwide Partnership Agreement (NPA) on adult dental health which has assisted states reduce waiting lists by tens of thousands.

The agreement was deferred for a yr from July in the federal budget, with the government taking $ 390m from the states. Funding for the existing agreement to minimize the waiting lists is due to run out over the subsequent year.

The president of the Australian Dentists Association, Karin Alexander, stated if negotiations stalled the states and territories could go months with out commonwealth dental funding.

“It depends on how extended the public sector, the states and territories are arguing when it comes to recommencing negotiations about what will be in the up coming NPA,” she explained.

“In a greatest-case scenario there will be, at worst, a delay of a couple of months. If it stretches out then we will see waiting lists balloon once more.”

Asked how extended that would take, Alexander said: “Not prolonged at all, a comparatively quick time.”

“I would hope the government sees sense and doesn’t play with people’s lives and their wellness by dragging out negotiations,” she explained.

“The men and women on the waiting lists can need to have anything accomplished, from fillings to extractions and further dentures,” she stated.

“Once you’ve got a hole in your tooth it just grows, it can get bigger and bigger until finally it reaches the nerve and you end up needing a root canal, then dentures.”

Individuals on the waiting lists have been generally from lower socio-financial backgrounds, such as pensioners and concession card holders.

A spokeswoman for SA Overall health stated South Australia had diminished its public dental waiting checklist by 9,000 people in the space of twelve months. It was now doing work out the ramifications of the NPA deferral and cancellation of others.

“There are a selection of plans which will be directly affected by the federal government’s choice to discontinue the Nationwide Partnership Agreements. We are at present reviewing the complete implications of this choice and functioning with our stakeholders to see how we can minimise the disruption to these programs in which attainable,” she mentioned.

Queensland’s overall health minister, Lawrence Springborg, said the current NPA had “slashed the state’s chronic waiting list problem”.

Springborg mentioned just before the NPA, individuals have been waiting up to ten many years for dental work. Queensland utilised the cash it obtained from the commonwealth to increase its vouchers plan which permitted public patients to be taken care of by personal dentists.

“Between 28 February 2013 and 30 April 2014, 97,000 dental vouchers were distributed across Queensland and about 91,000 have been claimed,” Springborg said.

“Between July 2013 and April 2014 about 17% of all public dental support exercise was presented privately, with the remaining 83% provided by public oral health employees.”

Springborg explained the agreement among the state and commonwealth supplied up to $ 67.3m to Queensland for the period to 31 March 2015 and would be unaffected by the new federal price range. The new NPA which was supposed to start off this July was initially worth $ 177.6m above 3 many years.

“Both NPAs have a comparable function – growing public dental services for eligible patients and lowering public dental waiting lists,” he mentioned.

In Victoria waiting instances have fallen by four.seven months from 17.5 month for restorative care in the 12 months to March and by eight.4 months from 19.3 months for denture care. The amount of individuals on dental waiting lists fell by 45.one%, from 116,864 to 64,117, between 30 June 2013 and 31 December 2013.

Victorian well being minister David Davis did not handle the deferral of the NPA when asked about the ramifications, as an alternative attacking the prior federal government.

“The Victorian Coalition government has been cutting waiting occasions for each standard dental care and dentures statewide,” he explained in a statement.

“The government has created dental care a priority and has diminished dental waiting times in the face of the cruel cuts to the Continual Ailment Dental Scheme by Tanya Plibersek and Julia Gillard. The former federal Labor government ripped $ 200m a year from public and personal dental providers in Victoria.”

Money saved from deferring the new NPA will be put into the health-related research long term fund.

Public dental waiting lists could surge due to $390m budget deferral

NHS waiting lists at their longest for 6 many years

Figures propose that a lot more than ten% of individuals are waiting much more than 18 weeks for treatment method for the initial time in 3 many years. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

NHS waiting lists are at their longest for six many years and an crucial target has been missed for the 1st time because 2011, official figures indicate.

The data suggests that far more than ten% of patients are waiting much more than 18 weeks for remedy for the 1st time in 3 years, whilst the total amount of patients on the checklist has risen to 2,885,253 – the highest February figure given that 2008. The quantity of sufferers waiting far more than 18 weeks has improved by nearly half because Could 2010 to far more than thirty,000 and these waiting much more than a yr for their therapy was also at its highest for a year at 544.

In accordance to Labour the figures are a consequence of the government wasting cash on unnecessary NHS reforms, which could have been far better spent on strengthening care high quality.

Andrew Gwynne, the shadow overall health minister, stated this means the prime minister is personally “accountable for the difficulties” connected with enhanced waiting instances.

“Beneath David Cameron, waiting lists for operations are at their longest in years. He wasted £3bn on a damaging reorganisation and individuals are paying the price. Labour left NHS waiting instances at a record lower but on David Cameron’s watch the NHS is heading back to the undesirable previous days with individuals waiting months on finish for treatment method in soreness and discomfort. This is further evidence that Tories cannot be trusted with the NHS.”

Dr Barbara Hakin, chief operating officer of NHS England, acknowledged that the NHS faces a “challenge on the 18-week standard” but additional that workers are “working exceptionally tough to guarantee sufferers are observed swiftly”.

“During February, close to 270,000 individuals have been admitted for therapy inside of the standard, and about 400 waited longer than we would have liked,” she stated. “This displays we are treating far more individuals than ever, but we do need to have to deal with patients in purchase of clinical priority. This means treating individuals who have waited the longest, which may imply that we miss the standard.

“We are established to redouble our efforts so that we do meet the normal and 90% of patients are taken care of within 18 weeks. But this could consider several months as it is imperative we concentrate on these who have waited longest.”

NHS waiting lists at their longest for 6 many years