The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.If Obamacare passes, consider this article a glimpse of your future.
Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.
Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.
The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.
Monday, August 3, 2009
NHS Rations Pain-Killer Drugs
According to this UK Telegraph article, here, the NHS wants to deny pain treatments like cortisone to NHS patients.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment