Patients will be given cash to purchase their own NHS care for the first time under a new government scheme.
The direct payments pilot, announced by health minister Paul Burstow, is to be rolled out across eight PCTs, who will directly hand patients the money for their care, allowing them to decide how, where and from whom they receive treatment.
Real personal budgets are already available to patients to purchase some forms of social care, but until now, personal health budgets have only been obtainable via PCTs or third parties.
The pilot scheme, which will run until 2012, is being developed to help patients with long term conditions such as diabetes, stroke, heart disease, end of life care and mental health conditions.
But the BMA has expressed concerns over the potential for the funding to be used to pay for ‘inappropriate and/or non-evidence based services or treatments’, including complementary therapies such as homeopathy.
Read more at Pulse.
Tags: Personal budgets
