UK NHS Placing Money Above Chronic Pain Sufferers

Very humanitarian move on the UK National Health Service.

Pa tients forced to live in agony after NHS refuses to pay for painkilling injections

The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

Dr Christopher Wells, a leading specialist in pain relief medicine and the founder of the NHS' first specialist pain clinic, said it was "entirely unacceptable" that conventional treatments used by thousands of patients would be stopped.

"I don't mind whether some people want to try acupuncture, or osteopathy. What concerns me is that to pay for these treatments, specialist clinics which offer vital services are going to be forced to close, leaving patients in significant pain, with nowhere to go,"

This is the system the current healthcare bill in the U.S. Congress is based on.

Very sad indeed when chronic pain sufferers are going to be refused proven treatment to save a buck. Wonder if those in the ruling class are also going to have this same cut in their healthcare benefits?