250 patients denied treatment in first two months of controversial PCT

11:00am Wednesday 7th March 2007

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HERE are 250 reasons why The Press campaign Let Your Doctor Decide is vital - for that is how many people have been refused treatment by cash-strapped health bosses in just TWO months.

The equivalent of four people every day are being turned away for surgery by a controversial health referral system designed purely to save money.

North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) launched its controversial Prior Approval Panel for Exceptional Cases - set up to vet patients for a wide range of hospital procedures - in January. The Press is campaigning for it to be scrapped.

Today we can reveal that since the panel was started it has received 707 referrals from GPs.

And so far, medics on the panel have turned away 250 patients referred by their GPs for general surgery.

Dr Brian McGregor, a York GP and secretary of the local medical committee, said: "Those 250 people are now having to consider whether to pay for their procedure. They may feel the NHS has failed them."

Dr David Geddes, primary care medical director for the PCT, said the patients who had been turned away for treatment had only been deferred while trust bosses decided what health services should be paid for in the next finance year.