Changes to NHS services and treatment

Here is what the local CCG's have decided after the consultation.

Today the governing bodies of Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) met in public and agreed to no longer fund certain treatments and procedures as we look to make savings for the local NHS.

As you know, we are required to save £55million in 2017/18. ‘Spending NHS money wisely’ identified a potential £5.2million of savings through restricting or ceasing funding for a number of non-life threatening treatments and procedures and involved an eight week public consultation. Over 650 responses were received. 

The governing bodies supported our recommendations and agreed to stop prescribing over the counter painkillers, muscle rubs, vitamin supplements, gluten-free foods and certain surgical procedures.

But we recommended rejecting proposals to stop funding procedures such as breast reductions and removing moles and cysts from people’s faces and the governing bodies agreed with us. They also agreed with us to reject proposals to no longer fund male and female sterilisation, listening to concerns raised by local authority colleagues regarding potential impact on other services. It was also agreed that one cycle of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) will be funded by the NHS, down from the three cycles currently funded. 

A full breakdown of the proposals and what was approved is attached and is also now available on our websites:

www.barkingdagenhamccg.nhs.uk/spending-wisely 
http://www.haveringccg.nhs.uk/spending-wisely
www.redbridgeccg.nhs.uk/spending-wisely

We’ve had to make some tough decisions, but we know that many of you understand that we simply can’t afford to keep spending NHS money on some of these things.

We spoke to hundreds of local people during the consultation and have been heartened that they largely agree with what we are doing – trying to save the local NHS money at a very difficult time. We didn’t recommend everything that we consulted on – we listened to people’s concerns around stopping IVF altogether and no longer funding sterilisations and we decided to reject them.

These changes will take effect from Monday 10 July 2017, meaning that only new referrals and prescriptions will be affected. We will now prepare for implementation of the changes, making sure our GPs – and other clinicians - have everything they need to explain these changes to patients as appropriate. 

Dr Ravali Goriparthi                        Dr Ashok Deshpande                     Dr Anita Bhatia
Dr Anju Gupta                                 Dr Maurice Sanomi                        Dr Sarah Heyes 
Barking and Dagenham CCG         Havering CCG                               Redbridge CCG