BMJ  2005;331:1426 (17 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7530.1426

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Primary care trusts should delay treatment to cut deficits

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Primary care trusts should tell hospitals to "go slow" and delay inpatient treatments for up to six months in a bid to cut financial deficits to zero before the end of the financial year, the health secretary has said.

Patricia Hewitt, under questioning from the parliamentary health select committee last week, said all trusts were expected to balance their books before the end of March, even if that meant deliberately delaying operations. The government's target on waiting times is that by the end of this month no patient should be waiting longer than six months for inpatient treatment.

Ms Hewitt said that even if hospitals had the capacity to cut waiting times even further it would "make sense" for financially troubled trusts to maintain these waits while deficits were reduced.

She said, "In some parts of the country hospitals could go faster than we have asked them to; some would . . . [Full text of this article]

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Treatment Delays will increase not cut deficits

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bmj.com, 19 Dec 2005 [Full text]

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