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Saturday, 23 April 2005 10:25 | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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Around 30 surgeons held a lively debate with Lord Warner, the health minister, at a meeting organised by the British Orthopaedic Directors Society in London to express their fears that the introduction of independent treatment centres (ITCs), set up to cut waiting lists, will lead to hospital closures and lower standards of patient care.
They believe that foreign doctors brought in to work on short-term contracts in the privately run ITCs will not be as well trained or monitored as strictly as those registered by the British Medical Council.
They expressed their concern that the introduction of the payment-by-results system of hospital funding and the opening of the ITCs will deprive district general hospitals of "easier and more lucrative" work, leading to closures and mergers.
Lord Warner said “the new centres were crucial to achieving the Government's target that by 2008 patients will wait no longer than 18 weeks from the time a GP identifies a potential problem to treatment.
"We have had 50 years of very, very long waiting lists and we are talking about a government that does not accept that. I realise that may be uncomfortable to people who have grown to love waiting lists”.
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