Two thirds of primary care trusts in England are restricting referrals for treatments they judge to be non-urgent or of low clinical value, and one third have expanded the list of procedures they will no longer fund, a survey has shown.

The survey showed that 64% of primary care trusts have introduced policies that restrict “non-urgent,” “limited clinical value,” “low priority,” and “cosmetic” treatments.

An investigation by GP magazine found that some trusts hope to save over £1m (€1.1m; $1.6m) by restricting referrals from GPs.

GP surveyed 152 trusts. Of the 111 trusts that responded on treatment funding, 35% said …