York GPs tell why prior approval system is wrong.

Dr John Givans

Dr John Givans, secretary of the North Yorkshire Local Medical Committee, said the prior approval panel could threaten the lives of some patients, including those turned down for treatment for a skin lesion that turned out to be malignant.

It would also lead to delays as patients' cases were considered.

"I certainly back the campaign: Let Your Doctors Decide. It's your GP - a patient's GP knows exactly what your clinical needs are, it's not some person in an office somewhere who's looking at bits of paper who will know what the patient's needs are."

Dr David Fair

DR David Fair, a GP at Jorvik Medical Practice in York, said some of his patients had already been turned down for treatment by the Prior Approval panel - one for a pain-relieving facet joint injection, and another for a Dexa scan which is used to check for osteoperosis.

"The people on the Prior Approval panel do not know the patients," he said. "They can't know their circumstances. They can't know all the details about the patient's medical condition. I think they (the PCT) have gone down the wrong path at an early stage."

Dr David Hartley

Dr David Hartley, a GP at Jorvik Medical Practice and chairman of York Health Group, said: "We have spent ten years training in order to advise people as to what their appropriate medical care should be. Prior approval is a recipe for losing patients half way down their healthcare journey.

"No-one has ever proved that we are over-referring."

Dr Hartley said he would rather see the NHS save money by abandoning costly IT systems such as Choose and Book.

Dr David Lightwing

Dr David Lightwing, a GP at Elvington Medical Practice, said: "I would back this campaign, and I think all my colleagues would back it."

Dr Lightwing said the prior approval panel was putting a barrier between patients and their treatment - but GPs already chose the people they referred to hospital very carefully.

Often they would try to treat a patient themselves, and only sent them to a specialist when all other course of action had failed. Dr Lightwing said the prior approval system imposed an unfair postcode lottery because patients in other parts of the country - including neighbouring counties - did not face the same barriers."