Monday 15 October 2018

Patients given 'needless' appointments because NHS funding pays hospitals to create work, trust chief warns

Patients given 'needless' appointments because NHS funding pays hospitals to create work, trust chief warns Doctors in overstretched hospitals feel forced into giving patients needless appointments so that they don’t lose funding, an NHS trust boss has said.

The health service’s financial system means that hospitals are given more money for generating work for themselves – and penalised for helping patients avoid coming in for treatment.

With hospitals facing record demand and a 50 per cent rise in patients having to wait six months or more, Alex Whitfield, chief executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said these payment rules were hampering efforts to modernise the health service. The Independent

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