NHS rationing 'a necessary evil'
Updated on 25 June 2007
Rationing of NHS services has become a "necessary evil" doctors have said , as they voted for moves that would restrict treatments to those in greatest need.
People should be given a document which sets out the conditions that can be treated on the NHS, said Dr Alex Smallwood, who proposed a motion which was passed at the British Medical Association's annual conference in Torquay, Devon.
He argued that the public should be given plenty of warning so they could start saving in case they needed private treatment. A contract would set out the key treatments on offer through the NHS, with the public asked for their views on what should be included.
The motion said some rationing of services was "inevitable" and the Government should be honest about it. It added: "Where rationing occurs it must be evidence-based, explicit and publicised."
Dr Smallwood, a junior doctor training as a GP from Bedford, told the conference: "It is no longer possible to provide all the latest (treatments) to absolutely everybody without notable detriment to others. Rationing is reduction in choice. Rationing has become a necessary evil.
"We need formalised rationing to prevent unregulated widening postcode lottery care."
He said the list of conditions that could be treated would be drawn up after debate and public consultation. But they might include a restriction on treating things like hernias and varicose veins.
A contract would also "go some way to helping clinicians", he said. "It would not mean we are going to stop, say, all cataract operations, but we are going to stop them for X, Y and Z people.
"If we had something saying this is not a priority for the NHS, then that would not jeopardise the doctor-patient relationship."
But Dr Anna Athow, who spoke against the motion, said there had always been rationing of NHS services due to a lack of funding. She said voting in favour meant the door would be open for an insurance-based funding system.
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