Northerner
Admin (Retired)
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 1
A NEW law that gives patients a legal guarantee of prompt treatment has been branded ?toothless? ? after it emerged more than 150 people have already waited beyond the time limit for operations.
The policy should see patients treated within three months of a course of action being agreed with their consultant and was billed as a major initiative intended to offer peace of mind and security to thousands of potentially desperately ill patients when it was launched in October.
But the fact it has failed at the first hurdle ? with a huge batch of patients already crashing over the vital 12-week treatment threshold ? has resulted in the landmark health law being branded ?meaningless? and nothing more than a PR stunt.
The scheme was previously widely criticised when we exclusively revealed patients could be sent abroad for treatment by doctors desperate to fix treatment solutions within the prescribed framework.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/nhs-lothian-branded-toothless-over-waiting-time-law-1-2761047
The policy should see patients treated within three months of a course of action being agreed with their consultant and was billed as a major initiative intended to offer peace of mind and security to thousands of potentially desperately ill patients when it was launched in October.
But the fact it has failed at the first hurdle ? with a huge batch of patients already crashing over the vital 12-week treatment threshold ? has resulted in the landmark health law being branded ?meaningless? and nothing more than a PR stunt.
The scheme was previously widely criticised when we exclusively revealed patients could be sent abroad for treatment by doctors desperate to fix treatment solutions within the prescribed framework.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/nhs-lothian-branded-toothless-over-waiting-time-law-1-2761047