"The NHS faces considerable financial pressures and scarce resources have to be used as effectively as possible. PCT commissioners take very seriously their role in protecting and improving the health of patients using limited funds. All PCT boards and management teams have senior clinicians who take a lead role in advising how local services should be planned and delivered.
"Where any decisions are taken to limit or reduce certain types of treatment it is essential that commissioners and GPs are clear with patients and local communities from the outset about what services are and are not available to them, and how long they can expect to wait for treatment.
"Where there is poor commissioning practice, we should not support it. Nobody wants decisions on patient care taken in an arbitrary fashion purely based on cost rather than evidence."
