Protests over move to cut number of free treatments to be blocked

Full story in The Camden New Journal, 9 February 2018

Health bosses have drawn up a blacklist of treatments which will no longer be funded by the NHS – and the New Journal can reveal they want patients to be prevented from getting the chance to protest against the changes.

The North London Partners, a group of health chiefs set up to review spending across five boroughs, described the public as a “barrier” to making £3million worth of cuts. Thousands of people could be affected by the changes but, in a withering assessment of whether to ask patients for their views on what should and should not be funded, a report by the group said “the public is the wrong ­audience” and “if we agree to no public consultation, we can action this immediately… Public consultation is [the] only barrier.”