Huge variety in health care costs

Jan 3 2009 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

PATIENTS in Yorkshire face huge regional variations in urgent care services provided by out-of-hours GPs.

The Government has urged a major review of night-time and weekend services, which are used by 750,000 people in the region in 2007-08.

But a new survey has uncovered massive differences in the cost of services and the care available, prompting calls for action to sort out problem areas.

In Kirklees the cost to the taxpayer of each out-of-hours call is £150, but in Barnsley it is only £18.

Doctors in Barnsley visited 22% of patients at home – equivalent to more than 60 people every night – compared with Doncaster, where only 2% of patients were seen at home, about three a night. In Bradford and Hull 9% of patients were referred by on-call doctors for specialist hospital treatment, but three times fewer patients were referred on in Kirklees, Leeds and Rotherham.

Health chiefs defended services which they said had been independently rated as above average in eight out of the region's 14 primary care trusts (PCTs), although they admitted that a review was under way in some area.

But the head of special projects at the Patients’ Association, Vanessa Bourne, said: “It's time these postcode lotteries were sorted out and someone got a grip on the situation. It’s perfectly possible to offer a better service.

“You do wonder what the strategic health authority is doing if it’s happy to allow this variation for all these patients.’’