Cuts planned to Worcestershire hip and knee operations
27 January 2017
The proposals will save around £2m.
Cost-cutting plans to slash the number of people eligible for hip and knee replacements have been criticised by surgeons.
Three Clinical Commissioning Groups in Worcestershire plan to only treat the most severe cases where pain interferes with daily life and ability to sleep.
Bosses said changing the scoring system to cut operations will save £2m a year.
The Royal College of Surgeons said the proposals have “no clinical justification”.
Redditch and Bromsgrove, South Worcestershire, and Wyre Forest are the CCGs behind the proposals, estimated to lead to around 350 fewer operations a year.
The plans would focus on treating “severe to the upper end of moderate” cases, and people who are obese with a body mass index of 35 or over needing to lose 10% of their weight unless their problems were very severe.’
Barriers to care’
CCG documents said a “patient’s pain and disability should be sufficiently severe that it interferes with the patient’s daily life and/or ability to sleep”.
Stephen Cannon, vice president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the scoring system used, known as the Oxford scoring system, “should not be used to create barriers to care”.
Full Article Source: Cuts planned to Worcestershire hip and knee operations – BBC News
Earl's View 
just been told bmi is to high for my other knee to be passed for an operation. Money before patient. cut backs ..How about the ambulance parked outside Malvern Hospital today with its engine running for half an hour.