Image: Grommets for glue ear are one of the procedures being largely cut from the NHS. Credit: Travis Isaacs/Flickr, CC 2.0
At the end of June NHS England formally announced its plan to withdraw 17 clinical procedures meaning they would no longer be routinely offered on the NHS. This move means treatments such as knee arthroscopies for patients with osteoarthritis, and snoring surgery, will no longer be available to anyone on the NHS. And procedures such as varicose vein removal, grommets for glue ear in children, hysterectomy for heavy menstrual bleeding, tonsillectomies, and treatments to release carpal tunnel syndrome or to remove benign skin lesions, will no longer be available to anyone on the NHS, unless complex criteria are met.
This is clearly a further step towards introducing a two-tier system with the better off being able to pay for non-NHS treatment, the poorer suffering in silence and private companies making a profit. NHSE is implementing what is arguably a prime example of this government’s long-term agenda – to severely restrict public health care and to promote private health care, and here it is in full flow.
