Arthritis ignorance drives up NHS costs

THE postcode lottery where arthritis patients across Oldham are having three times more spent on them than some other areas must be stopped, MPs warned today.

Sufferers do not always get the services and help they need once diagnosed, largely down to the funding discrepancies across the country, the powerful Commons Public Account Committee said.

Its report into services for people with rheumatoid arthritis shows big variations in spending across Primary Care Trusts.

It states: “Data presented by the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society identified variations in spending by primary care trusts on rheumatoid arthritis services of between £5.68 and £17.58 per head — a greater than three-fold difference.”

According to the MPs report in 2007/08 NHS Oldham spent £15.44 per head — almost three times the £5.68 in Bexley and significantly higher than the £10.97 England average. In total, £3.4 million was spent on rheumatoid arthritis in Oldham from its £23.7 million musculoskeletal services budget which takes in more than 200 conditions including arthritis, back pain and damage to joints, muscles and tendons. An estimated 580,000 in England have rheumatoid arthritis, with 26,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

The NHS costs are some £560 million a year, while costs to the economy as a whole due to sick pay and disability are around £1.8 billion.

The average time between onset of symptoms to diagnosis and first treatment is currently about nine months in England, which has not changed since 2003.

The report blames a lack of public awareness of symptoms and accuses GPs of failing to spot symptoms or refer patients to specialists.

Chairman Edward Leigh said: “The root of this delay is a widespread lack of knowledge. People with symptoms do not recognise that they might be suffering from the disease or what the consequences of delaying a visit to the doctor might be.

“GPs themselves are not well-informed about the disease and so not adept at picking it out from the hundreds of other musculoskeletal conditions they see.”

Separate figures in the report show Oldham health chiefs spent an estimated £590 on each patient with any musculoskeletal condition — the second highest in the country. Across Oldham, 40,107 adults and 60 children are thought to suffer with a musculoskeletal problem.