PCT waste fears as patients shun new treatment centre

Patients prefer to wait nine months for orthopaedic operations rather than be treated within ten weeks by a new independent treatment centre, a referral centre has found.

When patient advisers at the referral centre, run on behalf of four primary care trusts in the Nottingham area, contacted outpatients and gave them the option of earlier treatment at the new Trent and South Yorkshire ISTC run by Care UK Afrox Healthcare, most declined, according to GP Jonathan Harte.

Dr Harte, a member of a group called Nott Wait, a group of clinicians and hospital managers formed to cut waiting times in the four PCTs, told BMA News there were concerns that the slow uptake of treatment centre places was wasting PCT resources. PCTs pay for a certain number of procedures a year at the ISTC, even if they are not carried out.

Treatment centres are a core part of the government's drive to cut waiting times in the NHS.

The BMA welcomes the extra capacity but warns resources should not be taken away from other areas and says they should be subject to the same rigorous standards as the rest of health service.