COMMUNITY hospitals in Surrey are under the microscope as the county's primary care trust tries to tackle its ￡125m budget deficit.
IVF treatment for new patients will also be stopped, while planned care for smokers will be deferred until they have completed a course to help them kick the habit.
The plans were announced at?a meeting of the?NHS Surrey?board?in Cobham on Friday, which?also heard about proposals to create an enhanced community hospital hub system but at the expense of some sites.
Early indications are that the expanded services will be offered at hospitals in Woking, Farnham, Haslemere and Caterham Dene.
However, with no money to invest in these services, board members admitted that some community hospitals in other areas of Surrey would have to be sold off.
Cliff Bush, chairman of the Surrey Local Involvement Network, said at the meeting: “We have to understand that we will lose the other community hospitals as we need to make sure that we get the best services and transport provision for patients. I’m being realistic.
“The whole process will be consulted on. No decision has been made yet, but we have to understand that there’s financial consequences here.”
Cosmetic treatments
According to NHS Surrey, the current number of community hospitals in Surrey means vital services are stretched thin, and the?future may mean expanded?operations but across fewer locations.
The aim is for the enhanced community hospitals?to provide 24/7 consultant-led inpatient care, and they would also be able to receive ambulances.
The board approved a list of procedures and treatments that will be streamed into a 'Fast, Steady, Stop' programme, depending on their nature and how serious a patient's condition was.
Cosmetic treatments like female facial hair and tattoo removals are in the ‘Stop’ stream and will no longer be funded by NHS Surrey.
Other services to see funding withdrawn include acupuncture, treatment for male baldness and spinal epidural injections for chronic back pain, apart from in exceptional circumstances.
Treatments labelled ‘Steady’ include routine hip surgery, where NHS Surrey said it intended to honour the 18-week waiting time, while all life-threatening cases would be undertaken as normal.
"Cost pressures"
Dr John Omany, medical director at NHS Surrey, said: “Over the past months we have seen a substantial rise in referrals for non-urgent or low priority procedures.
“In addition, there is increasing evidence that for some procedures, significant numbers of patients report no clinical benefit.
“By stopping doing things which aren’t clinically necessary, we can safeguard and continue to do what’s clinically essential or urgent, such as cancer referrals and life-threatening trauma cases in A&E.
“Going forward it is clear that the NHS cannot continue to offer treatments where there is no or very limited clinical evidence or which are predominantly cosmetic.”
Current courses of IVF will continue, but starting from next month any new referrals will not be funded.
Women who are nearing the age?of 39 might still be considered in certain circumstances?though, and the IVF policy will be reviewed next November.
Anne Walker,?chief executive of NHS Surrey, said they started 2010/11 needing to make savings of more than ￡125m.
“Whilst we have made steady progress and delivered significant savings through a range of schemes, additional cost pressures have been incurred during the year.
“As a result, our latest forecast is that unless urgent action is taken we will end the year with a deficit of over ￡35m, which is clearly unacceptable.”
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