NHS warned over patient fund rows

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NHS officials in Wales have been warned by Health Minister Edwina Hart that high-profile funding rows are damaging the service's reputation.

After three critical reports, she rebuked trusts and local health boards (LHBs), and said patients had been denied treatment to protect budgets.

Carol Jones of Community Health Councils in Wales welcomed her comment.

She said health commissioners could not "play God" over "necessary and fundamentally simple treatment."

"Too often community councils in Wales and their complaints advocate hear of cases like this where individuals perhaps are reticent or feel unable to speak up for themselves," she said.

"So I think it is important that we recognise that the minister at least agrees that the citizen's voice should be recognised."

Individual complaints can drive changes across the system Peter Tyndall, public services ombudsman for Wales

The assembly government circular asks all chief executives of LHBs and NHS trusts to review their procedures in the wake of the "damning ombudsman's report" on a pregnant woman from Cardiff who was denied a routine £100 injection.

In that case, the ombudsman report found that the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust and Cardiff Local Health Board (LHB) could not agree who should pay for it.

The patient arranged a private treatment and the ombudsman recommended that she should be reimbursed and compensated.

'Care compromised'

Both the LHB and the trust later apologised.

In a separate case last year the public ombudsman criticised two NHS trusts and a local health board after a severely disabled woman had to wait three years for vital equipment.

The ombudsman said the three bodies had failed to agree about the urgency of the case of Sarah Dadd, from Cogan, Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.

The circular from the assembly government signed by two senior civil servants said: "It is unacceptable that the care of a patient is compromised while NHS organisations are in dispute about funding of treatment.

They added that funding should be worked through in parallel with the treatment, and should not involve the patient or impact on their care.

Public perception

The circular also warned that high-profile funding rows could have an impact on the public's perception of the entire NHS.

They add: "All LHBs and trusts must always consider the possible consequences that can arise from the adverse publicity generated from these cases - such as damage to reputations of each individual organisation and of the NHS in Wales as a whole."

Peter Tyndall, the public services ombudsman for Wales, welcomed the minister's intervention.

He called it "a prompt and effective response to a series of concerns and I'm confident it will bring about a change to stop any recurring".

But he admitted it could lead to more complaints from patients about treatment.

"People when they come to me very often say 'what I want to do is to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else' and this demonstrates that if you do complain then it's possible for that to happen - individual complaints can drive changes across the system."