{"id":578,"date":"2015-09-04T08:59:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T07:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/?p=578"},"modified":"2015-09-01T13:01:20","modified_gmt":"2015-09-01T12:01:20","slug":"nhs-money-spent-on-patient-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/nhs-money-spent-on-patient-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"NHS Money Spent on Patient Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

Personal health budgets provided by the NHS are being spent on items other than medical treatment \u2013 including games consoles, holidays and horse-riding.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pulse <\/i>magazine uncovered the details after making a Freedom of Information request. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Of the 209 clinical commissioning groups in England, around 15% offered data about personal health budgets \u2013 which according to an NHS spokesperson \u201cgive patients more control over the care and support they receive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Personal health budgets<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Personal health budgets have been phased in over the past year and are aimed at patients with long-term conditions that require considerable out-of-hospital care.<\/span><\/p>\n

They are intended to be spent upon \u2018therapies, personal care and equipment\u2019. A budget is allocated to each patient and a care plan agreed with their GP or NHS team, describing how the money will be used.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is hoped that the \u00a3120 million scheme will help a patient achieve their individual needs, rather than a \u2018one size fits all\u2019 approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Boat trips, massage and games consoles<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

But instead of spending the money on treatment that is proven to have some benefit, patients are using their budgets on non-medical therapies and other treats.<\/span><\/p>\n

In one area of Cornwall, \u00a3267,000 was given to a total of five patients, of which \u00a32,080 was spent on aromatherapy, \u00a3248 on horse-rising and \u00a37.34 on pedalo hire.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other items that were purchased with personal health budgets include a sat-nav, a tablet computer, shiatsu massage, summer houses, games consoles and holidays.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not an \u201cappropriate use of money\u201d<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Nick Watson, a professor of disability research at the University of Glasgow, has suggested that patients do not always know how best to use the money to promote their own health.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the reason people go to medical school is to find out how best to treat patients. Pedaloes and shiatsu don\u2019t strike me as an appropriate use of money\u201d, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not arguing that people should not be involved in what healthcare they take, but I do think there has to be an evidence base that it would work. That is a chief requirement for the public funding of healthcare interventions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association\u2019s general practitioners\u2019 committee, said: \u201cWhile individuals may value a massage or summer house, others will understandably start to question why they can\u2019t also have such things paid for by the state.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Medical negligence lawyer<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

If you or your loved one has suffered substandard medical care and you would like expert legal advice regarding your options, please get in touch with us at Glynns Solicitors. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personal health budgets provided by the NHS are being spent on items other than medical treatment \u2013 including games consoles, holidays and horse-riding. Pulse magazine uncovered the details after making a Freedom of Information request. Of the 209 clinical commissioning groups in England, around 15% offered data about personal health budgets \u2013 which according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[335,609,608,607,610],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nhs-budget","tag-nhs-funds","tag-personal-health-budget","tag-personal-health-budgets","tag-pulse-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glynns.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}