Personal Injury Solicitor Croydon

Some NHS trusts in the United Kingdom have been accused of deliberately making patients wait for routine operations for so long that they either are forced to pay for private healthcare or die just to save money, according to a new report.

The claims are outlined in a report by the Co-operation and Competition Panel, an independent watchdog that advises the NHS which also states that NHS managers are delibertaly delaying bad operation – sometimes for up to 4 months – in a cope that patients will remove themselves from waiting lists in a “callous” attempt to save money. The watchdog claims that these practices are “endemic” in parts of England as NHS bosses are forced to make £20billion in savings by 2014 with operations such as hip replacements being deliberately delayed.

CCP chairman Lord Carter of Coles said: ‘Commissioners have a difficult job in the current financial climate, but patients’ rights are often being restricted without a valid and visible reason.’

Katherine Murphy, of independent charity the Patients Association, said: ‘It is outrageous that some primary care trusts are imposing minimum waiting times.

‘The suggestion that it could save money because patients will remove themselves from the list by going private or dying is a callous and cynical manipulation of people’s lives and should not be tolerated.’

It is believed that such practices will eventually lead to more people attempting to sue the NHS for compensation in order to pay for operations.

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