Surgeons raise alarm over waiting

[Potemkin]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12964360

Surgeons raise alarm over waiting
By Branwen Jeffreys Health correspondent, BBC News

Surgeons say patients in some parts of England have spent months waiting in pain because of delayed operations or new restrictions on who qualifies for treatment.

In several areas routine surgery was put on hold for months, while in many others new thresholds for hip and knee replacements have been introduced.

The moves are part of the NHS drive to find £20bn efficiency savings by 2015.

[Ought Six]

Heh! The new austerity measures are just the beginning. Wait until the flood of pensioners start to retire, and the economy goes from 'zombie' to 'rotting corpse'. That is when the real pain begins.

[rb.]

You know, I keep hearing about wait times for hip and knee replacement surgery, cataracts, etc. I don't remember hearing about these surgeries, and "horrible" wait times for them 20 or more years ago. Was it because I didn't pay attention? Was it because they weren't done, or not done as often? Are we needing more of these types of operations as a society?

[rb.]

A Canadian survey released in January 2003 stated that the number of knee replacements performed in patients younger than 55 rose 90% between 1994 and 2001.Most surgeons expect to see the proportion of knee arthroplasties performed in younger patients continue to rise. One reason for this trend is improvements in surgical technique, as well as the design and construction of knee prostheses since the first knee replacement was performed in 1968.

http://www.surgery.com/procedure/kne...t/demographics

So...we are expecting more.