British patients being denied NHS mental care

A new survey reveals that British patients are being denied mental health care, new hips and knees and drugs to boost their recovery from illness including cancer mainly due to the National Health Service's austerity measures to overcome its growing cash crisis.

Three-quarters of doctors attending the survey said they had seen care rationed in their area over the last year – including treatments such as speech therapy, operations to remove varicose veins, Botox to help children with cerebral palsy move better and even potentially life-saving stem cell transplant surgery.

The survey also showed that disabled children were having to use ill-fitting wheelchairs, teenage girls were banned from accessing medication to tackle male-style hair growth and women had been unable to access surgery to have breast enlargements or reductions as a result of growing restrictions across England, the research concluded.

“This is the most vulnerable groups of the society who are paying the price for the crisis,” A London-based analysts Alan Gobbons told Press TV’s UK Desk.

He went on saying that the government remains reluctant towards the suffering of poor patients and is not ready to make changes to its austerity measures.

“The NHS is being forced to choose between which patients to treat, with some facing delays in treatment and others being denied some treatments entirely. This survey lays bare the extreme pressure across the system and the distress caused to patients as a result,” the leader of the British Medical Association, Dr Mark Porter, said.

Almost four in five (78%) of the 749 doctors in England who took part in the survey said patients who were denied treatment suffered increased anxiety as a result.

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