NHS Patients Told to Treat Themselves

National Center for Policy Analysis ^ | January 3, 2008

[InvisibleChurch]

Millions of Britons with arthritis, asthma and even heart failure will be urged to treat themselves as part of a government plan to save billions of pounds from the government run National Health Service (NHS) budget.

Instead of going to hospital or consulting a doctor, patients will be encouraged to carry out "self care" as the Department of Health (DoH) tries to meet Treasury targets to curb spending.

The guidelines could mean people with chronic conditions:

Monitor their own heart activity, blood pressure and lung capacity using equipment installed in the home Report medical information to doctors remotely by telephone or computer Administer their own drugs and other treatment to "manage pain" and assessing the significance of changes in their condition Use relaxation techniques to relieve stress and avoid "panic" visits to emergency wards. Critics claim the plan would provide doctors with an excuse for ignoring the elderly or those with debilitating, but not life-threatening long-term conditions, and would not work without significant investment in community health services.

The Arthritis Research Campaign says it risks providing health managers with "an excuse for neglecting elderly patients."

Source: James Kirkup, "NHS patients told to treat themselves," London Telegraph, January 1, 2008.

For text:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=X1PRMN4XJXPRHQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2008/01/02/nhs102.xml

For more on Health Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_Category=16

[InvisibleChurch]

[gidget7]

Coming to a hospital near you!

[wretchard]

It’s “free”.

[AlaskaErik]

AS NHS disintigrates it provides ever more compelling evidence that nationalized health care would be a disaster for our country and would set back medicine by 150 years or more.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

I wouldn’t mind being able to call my doc and get an antibiotic or allergy prescription without having to wait for 1/2 hour+ then pay $30 to have him write it.

[sheik yerbouty]

“Deathcare”

[television is just wrong]

you are SOOOO right on that. I also believe that sometimes, the government is the worst place to go when you are truly concerned about your health.

[kitkat]

***I wouldn’t mind being able to call my doc and get an antibiotic or allergy prescription without having to wait for 1/2 hour+ then pay $30 to have him write it.***

I DO call my doctor’s office and get a prescription RE-filled, since it’s already prescribed. If you’re talking about self-prescribing, then that is dangerous.

[Winniesboy]

Not for the first time herabouts, the NHS is being rapped for something which is a) nothing to do with socialized medicine and b) highly desirable. There are plenty of good reasons for dissing socialized medicine without having to invent bad ones. Self-monitoring of chronic conditions of the kind described is both common sense and highly cost-efficient. With modern equipment taking your own blood pressure, for instance, is as easy as weighing yourself. Suspect any health professional who tells you otherwise of protectionism. Going to the doctor to have your blood pressure monitored makes as lttle sense as taking your car to a garage to have the oil level checked.