| Subject |
MP
calls on Health Secretary to intervene on Bournemouth Hospital/PCT
dispute before more patient operations are disrupted
|
| Ref |
PR/06-142 |
| Date |
Friday
9th June 2006 |
Tobias Ellwood
has asked the Health Secretary to help resolve the dispute between
Bournemouth hospital and the local PCT by closing a loophole in
the guidelines for treating patients.
Local GPs refer
around 45,000 patients for operations a year to Bournemouth Hospital
but the local Primary Care Trust, (Bournemouth and Poole PCT), who
cover the costs, limit their budget to around 30,000 operations.
This has resulted in an outstanding bill of over £6m for the
last financial year.
According to
Government guidelines hospitals are obliged to treat all referrals
made by GPs. As most hospitals have a large backlog of outstanding
operations, the volume of referrals usually stays within the respective
PCT's budget. However Bournemouth hospital has kept up with demand
which has now outgrown the local PCT's budget. In addition to money
owed from last year a further £800,000 is now owed for the
first month of this financial year. This has led the hospital to
announce its intention to refuse referrals for operations from GP's
until the dispute is resolved.
Tobias is calling
for the Health Secretary to review the situation in Bournemouth
which is likely to be repeated across the country as other hospitals
become more efficient.
Some operations
which will not be affected are those booked via a new computer booking
process called the 'Chose and Book System.' As payment is automated,
patients holding such referrals will be operated by the hospital
as usual. Tobias is therefore urging all patients to ensure their
GP referral is completed using the 'Chose and Book System' rather
than the traditional paper method in order to avoid being turned
away from the hospital.
All this comes
in a week were new Government figures released show the NHS is now
£1.3 billion the red.
Tobias said:
"It would be difficult to deliberately create such a confusing
system where a PCT has no control over a hospital yet it pays for
the operations, the hospital has no control over the GPs yet it
must operate on all their referrals and the GPs have no control
over the PCT in influencing the budget. It therefore requires the
Department of Health to unravel this mess and close the loop holes
which are preventing patients from receiving the level of service
they expect and deserve."
|
