UPDATED EVERY THURSDAY
Thursday 18th December 2003
All content © New Journal Enterprises, 2003.
 
 
 
 
 
NEWS   BY KIM JANSSEN

Wart-removal patients turned away by hospital
NHS consultants at Hampstead’s Royal Free Hospital are refusing to remove verucas and warts because the queue for skin operations has grown so long.
A shortage of GPs and surgeons means patients may have to go without treatment or have the minor surgery done privately.
Speaking at a meeting of Camden Primary Care Trust’s board at St Pancras Hospital on Monday, medical director Dr Kathy Hoffman described surgery for verucas and warts as “cosmetic”.
NHS managers and GPs would “have to learn to say no to patients”, she added.
Dr Hoffman said verucas would eventually go away without treatment and that surgery could leave permanent scars.
Dermatology is Camden’s most over-subscribed service with 236 patients – almost 30 per cent of those waiting for the minor surgery – having to wait longer than the government’s 13-week target for an appointment. As a result health bosses must find ways to cut lists.
Dr Hoffman said: “We are getting a lot of cosmetic referrals and we will not see verucas and warts any more. We should just get a chirotherapist to do it.”
She denied that there was a question of patient safety involved, adding: “What we are talking about are benign warts that people want removed for cosmetic reasons.”
But David Metz, a non-executive director on the board, warned that the decision needed to be considered further.
The board agreed to consider providing the services by other means, so consultants’ time was not taken up.
Later, as part of a wider debate about priority setting within the NHS, Dr Hoffman said the primary care trust should take stock of the services it provides and decide whether all were still necessary.
She said: “There is a culture that once you start something you do not stop.”
Mr Metz also raised concerns about the way the trust set its priorities.
He said: “Taxpayers have seen the extra cash go into the health service and they are expecting real improvements. It is important we play our part in that.”
But trust chairman John Carrier said the board had been “very clear” about its priorities.
He added: “There is an issue about how you stop doing something which the public has got used to when the money could be better used, without it being seen as a cut.”