Rationing policy will do far more harm than good

NHS England’s list of restricted procedures normalises denying patients effective treatments.1 Shifting between pretexts of “clinically obsolete” and “too expensive,” it is the antithesis of a sensible, pragmatic response to planning provision for the population in an artificially constrained budget. Clinical commissioning groups’ rationing of hip and knee surgery—effective and cost effective procedures—alongside redundant or cosmetic procedures, creates a …