According to the HSJ (3 June 2015), a clinical commissioning group will introduce clinical thresholds for surgery and significantly restrict access to services to cope with its ‘financially distressed position’. North East Essex CCG will bring in thresholds for non-urgent elective surgery on the basis of whether patients smoke or are overweight.
Smokers will be referred to a smoking cessations service, while overweight or obese patients would be “strongly encouraged” to lose weight. “Failure to
attend smoking cessation or weight loss programmes may have an impact on whether individuals could undergo their procedure,” the CCG said in a report for a board meeting.
The CCG will also no longer fund IVF, vasectomy and female sterilisation except “in cases of complex health needs”.