No End In Sight

[bazwillrun]

http://metro.co.uk/2013/11/23/britains-biggest-lottery-winners-pay-for-girl-4-to-have-pioneering-cerebral-palsy-surgery-4198514/

NHS refuse to fund op but seems able to pay for prisoner to have sex change ops (recent story)

and we can find money for immigrants to have flying lessons (recent story)etc etc etc thew list just goes on and on

and if you can be bothered to look at some of the "projects" the lottery has funded over the years without being sick to the pit of your stomach..and this poor kids parents have to go begging

what a disgrace this country is becoming...we are just sinking lower and lower

[Sqad]

I am rather confused as to why the NHS felt that the money for the operation was unjustifiable.

boxtops is my NHS admin guru, so perhaps she may have an answer.

[marval]

Well done the Weirs, but they shouldn't have had to do that. The NHS still don't seem to know which operations are most important. The government need to get their priorities right.

[Gromit]

The surgery is usually undertaken when all other treatments have been tried and failed. She was probably refused this surgery on the NHS because the other treatments had not been attempted.

The NHS does this operation. She was treated at an NHS hospital.

[Prudie]

I'm impressed that the Weirs actually opened what must must have been one of a thousand begging letters.

[Sqad]

Gromit.

\\\She was probably refused this surgery on the NHS because the other treatments had not been attempted. \\\

You think that the surgeon "bypassed" all the simpler procedures and embarked upon this major operation?

Why should he? He want get paid any extra money.

Things obviously have changed in the NHS as i would have just have admitted her and got on with the job.....nothing to do with bloody administrators.

[boxtops]

Can't answer this one, sqad, unless the patient is the victim of the postcode lottery - some Trusts can afford to/have contracted for certain procedures, othes have differing priorities. I believe that requests for exceptional treatment are considered at local level, with clinical evidence being taken into account. It doesn't seem consistent - someone is funded to go to the US for a treatment, someone with a different condition, who seems equally urgent, isn't.

[Sqad]

Thanks boxy my darling....BUT how does it cost the NHS £40,000?
The surgeon is on a fixed salary, the nursing staff are on a fixed salary, the post operative care is there........I don't understand it.

[boxtops]

Here we are - the funding was declined at central level, by NICE, because there's no evidence (or wasn't) that the operation meets acceptable clinical standards, because there's not been enough research previously to prove this operation works.

http://www.justgiving.com/skyesthelimit

[boxtops]

If you have a private op, sqad, everything's costed up, down to the last swab - the cost will include use of theatre time, scrubs, anaesthesia, recovery, post-op - everything.

[Sqad]

LOL...boxy...you are a genius. If i was the surgeon, i would just get her in and get on with it...if they wanted to sack me ...fine.....i would contact the Daily Mail.

No wonder many of my colleagues in the US are worried about an NHS type health system.

[Sqad]

boxy...I know about Private medical costs, bit this £40,000 was stated as a cost to the NHS.............I just don't get it.

[boxtops]

Errrrm.....

The way it's been described to me, hospital Trusts these days can only undertake procedures which they've been commissioned to deliver. So I commision 6 hip ops, the hospital delivers 6 hip ops. If they operate 7 times, they're overspent on the hip op budget, and are penalised in next year's budget.

[Sqad]

boxy...I am glad i am out of it..............

[boxtops]

That's how much the op would cost the NHS, I guess, in terms of medical and clinical hours, accommodation, disposables - et al.

[pixie373]

It does seem that the priorities are all back-to-front.

[Sqad]

\\\\\That's how much the op would cost the NHS, I guess, in terms of medical and clinical hours, accommodation, disposables - et al.\\\

[email protected] bill at the end of the month to the trust would be exactly the same.
Instead of 6 hips being paid for, there would be one spinal procedure....the cost would be the same.

[pixie373]

...not everyone has common sense, sqad...

[Sqad]

pixie....I may be endowed, but unfortunately not with common sense...;-)

[Gromit]

Sqad

the Fenchay Hospital in Bristol specialises in this operation. It is 35 miles from the little girl's home.

http://www.nbt.nhs.uk/news-media/latest-news/uk’s-first-pioneering-operation-at-frenchay-offers-hope-children-cerebral-pal

They do this operation on the NHS.

Normally, other treatments are tried first before resorting to this new surgery.