NHS Closed-Shop Monopoly - Vested Interests

NHS Closed-Shop Monopoly - Vested Interests - Patients Suffer

Most people don't know that 'NHS bosses pursue anti-competitive practices often for no valid reason to block patient choice and exclude private providers'.

The truth is, successful private treatments are 'excluded to protect failed NHS services which would close if patients had a fair choice about where to be treated' however the money saved could be used to pay for effective treatment elsewhere but this doesn't happen due to the NHS closed-shop policy which means 'patients suffer'. In effect, the taxpayer is funding massive failure.

For example: In 2006 we detoxed a patient for the NHS on 80mls methadone per day in just 5 days supervised by their staff, in their premises. At the end of the successful treatment we were told by the drugs workers 'we don't see how we can dovetail your treatment into our practices'.

The patient was John Williams, please click here to read his comments about our methadone detox, John was back in work within 1 week of finishing his detox. His doctor the Clinical Director said "I was very impressed and intrigued by the treatment you gave to one of the patients I see. He reduced his dose from 80mls to 0mls in a matter of five days.. He told me that he felt better and was sleeping better during his rapid reduction". Since 2006 our successful detox treatments to help people stop smoking, stop drinking or stop using drugs have been ignored by the addiction services even though we have contacted the NTA and the 150 Drug & Alcohol Teams throughout the UK numerous times, offering our assistance.

There are 11,000 drug workers looking after 207,000 registered addicts 'in treatment'. This means each drug worker is responsible for just 19 people a month, with a successful detox treatment there would be less addicts and therefore less drug workers, so they ignore or block successful treatments to maintain the status quo. In Feb 2010 Iain Duncan Smith said 'it was unacceptable that only 4% of addicts in treatment ever get “clean” and accused the agency of “pushing aside” proper rehabilitation'.

A leading doctor and author of 'Doctors, Lies And The Addiction Bureaucracy', Dr Dalrymple explains why: 'addiction services have grown so massively they have developed a survival instinct and are not looking for a cure, in short, the bureaucracy of addiction needs clients far more than clients need the bureaucracy of addiction. As a result, 'a self-serving, self-perpetuating and completely useless alcohol/drug bureaucracy has built up to deal with the problem' which is apparent by their low remission rate of just 3.6%, click here to read his full article.

Prescriptions for alcohol problems have soared 46% in the last 10 years but alcohol related deaths have also risen by 40% as the 'NHS methods' used to help people stop drinking do not deal with the core issue and do not work in general. In fact, a Health select committee of MP's has branded NHS alcohol treatment services in the UK as 'dire' with a success rate of just 1% to 2% because NHS bosses ignore new or innovate treatments to pursue anti-competitive practices often for no valid reason, an official review says.

The same scenario is true for the thousands of 'stop smoking advisors' who can't actually stop anyone from smoking but ignore any successful treatments that can to protect their jobs. The NHS is full of 'vested interests' which block or protest about any changes to the working practices or attempts to introduce new or better treatments to improve patient outcomes hence why patients need more control over their treatment options and why the NHS needs radical reform.

Failed NHS Services
Most people would like our treatments to be available on the NHS but NHS bosses in the addiction services have ignored treatments that are too successful to 'safeguard jobs' by operating closed-shop policies which restrict patient choice backed up by GPs who have been told by their union the British Medical Association to actively block private treatments to 'protect NHS services' even though they have been in almost 'continuous decline' over the last 10 years. As 'people trust their GP and will listen to their advice' this is an area of grave concer.

As a result of this 'protectionism' there has been little to no fresh innovation in NHS treatments to help people stop smoking, stop drinking or stop using drugs in decades and they are actually 'the worst performing' with minimal success rates of just 12%, 2% and 4% respectively, so these problems continue to escalate as they have done for the past 30 years, as 'the culture of the treatment services focuses on the 'need of the service' before the client's progress and 'rewards for the retention of clients', which means more funding, bigger departments, more jobs and greater bonuses for 'seeing' more patients but without any real success.

The truth is, failed drugs and treatments are 'promoted' to retain patients because they don't work for most people while much safer and more successful treatments are 'ignored' - to protect jobs. The practice of 'retaining patients by ignoring successful treatment' is endemic throughout the NHS. In the meantime, patients continue to suffer and are simply being used to protect these failed NHS services that in the commercial world would have closed decades ago.

For example: Would you pay £400.00 to attend NHS smoking cessation to be given nicotine patches? Then if you had not smoked for 14 days while wearing the patch, be recorded as a 'non-smoker or successful quitter'? - Nobody would not pay £400.00 for this type of service hence why NHS smoking cessation services are not 'commercially viable' and would close if they were not funded by the tax payer. But the tax payer is not getting value for money as it costs approximately £160 million per annum to fund this 'useless and ineffective' service which could be spent on more successful treatment.

The Addiction Challenge
The addiction services have massive failure rates and ignore successful treatments however this 'closed-shop monopoly' costs the tax payer £1.5billion per annum for smoking, alcohol and drug services which 'do not work, have poor outcomes and bad results' this is wasteful and irresponsible at any time, even more so in the current economic climate.

In an effort to break this monopoly, get greater value for the tax payer and better treatment for patients we welcome ANY challenge to test our treatment methods against any 'evidence based NHS clinical treatment' for smoking, alcohol or drugs because they do not work. The test would be carried out over 10 days at the end of that period the individual would be dependence free and not reliant on any replacement medication. The NHS challenge has been in effect since January 2007 and no clinician, GP, scientist or medical professional has come forward to take part so they can continue with the same failed 'non-treatment' methods which are responsible for 'prolonging the problem' while wasting billions/millions of pounds every year on failed NHS services that in the 'real world' would cease to exist.

The NHS costs the tax-payer £115bn per annum so it is not a free service and everyone should care about how their money is being spent or more importantly wasted and/or squandered. Most people ASSUME the NHS would automatically use a treatment because it was successful, however they would be wrong.

Stifle Innovation
Most people think the NHS is an open, innovative and welcoming institution that approaches problems with a 'can do attitude' that would welcome new ideas/treatment with a sense of 'possibility' and what 'could work', however this is not the case. The NHS is a closed-shop who stone-wall innovation and ignore or block new ideas as they see them as a threat to jobs rather than an opportunity to improve results or costs, so NHS bosses pursue anti-competitive practices often for no valid reason, to block choice', an official review says.

Most people do not know the 'reality' of how the NHS operates and how some successful treatments are ignored or blocked to protect failed NHS services as the NHS is controlled by vested interests' while the patients 'suffer'.

'Treatments for use by the NHS should be independently assessed by a third party and not by the NHS department involved, this would stop 'vested interests' from blocking or ignoring new and better treatments'.

NHS Bias
The BBC has reported on the bias against private care by the NHS to exclude treatments and now the Office of Fair Trading has now launched an investigation into these 'unfair practices' within the NHS. A leading think tank Civitas has also confirmed 'patients suffer' because the NHS operates a negative 'closed-shop' policy to actively block better treatments to 'protect inferior NHS services' which have been in almost 'continuous decline' over the last 10 years. Read their full report 'Refusing Treatment' here.

Fraud is also costing the tax payer £3billion a year, with millions being paid to NHS doctors and dentists who ‘invent' shifts and fake treatments.

Although spending on the NHS went up by over £40bn in the last decade, productivity in hospitals was in 'almost continuous decline' during the period which also contributed to an appalling level of waste because they focused too much on meeting targets, according to a report by the Public Accounts Committee.

'It's is all too easy for the NHS department affected by a new treatment or therapy to block or ignore it to
maintain the status quo'.

Broken NHS Guarantee
The promise of the NHS was a simple guarantee: no matter who you were, it would be seen to that you got the best available care - but this is no longer the case.

In the NHS, there is no competitive edge; no incentive to 'care about' or to 'cut costs' or to 'improve efficiency' and a 'chronic lack of common sense'. In the NHS, 'success' is based upon 'numbers' and the number of people seen and NOT the results of that treatment, as one would assume, therefore NHS departments want 'problems' to get 'bigger' to see and 'retain' more patients, rather than being successful and releasing patients. As NHS success is not based upon results, no one cares what the results of treatment are they just want to see more patients to hit targets.

Patients Suffer
What does this mean to you? Patients are not been given the best treatments, they are being used to keep failed NHS services open that in the commercial world would have closed years ago. Basically for the NHS to improve it needs more competition.

But the Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP), the government body that investigates competition issues in the NHS, has found that patients are losing out as a result of restrictions on their choice of provider of NHS care.

'The monopolists want to suppress competition from alternative suppliers and hide behind their professed love of the NHS as their excuse. On the other side are critics who argue that the best way to encourage high standards and value for money is to promote pluralism so that the best ideas can emerge from comparison of one provider with another. The Government must not lose its nerve by turning its back on competition or watering down the role of Monitor', according to the head of the NHS Confederation's private companies network.

NHS management consultant Paul Corrigan says 'I have always understood why parts of the NHS resist competition. If you are in a monopoly position it means that you can look inwards and feel in charge of the world that you see. No-one can come up with an important innovation from outside that will turn your cozy world upside down. You are in charge of your own pace of change'.

Real Reason to Block Choice
Efforts to introduce change and better treatments are continually blocked even the previous government tried to crack down on ‘vested interests' in the NHS including GP leaders who were seen as blocking Government reforms. More than 200 GPs earn over £250,000 a year while thousands earn more than Prime Minister.

'GP's are private businesses with NHS contracts but they don't want any competition from other private businesses
in the NHS, so do the best they can to block any reforms to give patients more choice'.

An unidentified GP from Kent is believed to be reaping the benefits of a new contract after earning that allows doctors to run several surgeries that rake in NHS cash for providing extra treatment after earning £770,000.00 in one year, critics said 'this explains why GP's don't want competition in the NHS, they want to provide 'services' themselves at higher prices'. This can include minor operations, tests for diabetes or help for drug addicts. This is the real reason for blocking competition and patient choice, said one critic.

Current Health Minister Simon Burns said: "We expected resistance from the BMA over our proposals to create a fair playing field to give patients more choice of provider. They have previously opposed this under successive governments' as 66% of GPs say THEY will be worse off if patients have more choice.

Myth of Evidence Based Medicine
Critics say 'private treatments for addiction or dependency are blocked from NHS use by the medical profession who claim they are not evidence based or scientifically proven however only about 15 per cent of medical interventions are supported by solid scientific evidence; in other words, 85 per cent are not. All the evidence proves their 'evidence based methods' do not work while 'evidence based medicine is not restricted to randomised trials and meta-analyses. It involves tracking down the best external evidence with which to answer our clinical questions'.

Dire Treatments
A Health select committee of MP's has branded NHS alcohol treatment services in the UK as 'dire' but GP's have been told to block independent alcohol treatments to 'safeguard NHS services' (regardless of their failure at 98%) and even though they are 'dire'.

Ridiculous Schemes
A good example of how staff in the NHS like to 'prolong a problem' to justify their existence is the latest £75,000 scheme to give people with serious alcohol problems a mobile phone so they can keep in touch. Critics have slammed the scheme as 'stupid, ridiculous and a waste of tax-payers money'.

Texting Better Than NRT
The NHS were dealt an embarrassing blow when a study published in the Lancet confirmed simple text messages were more successful at 10.7% than nicotine replacement therapy at 6% in help people stop smoking however NRT costs the NHS £61million per annum. Glyn McIntosh, from the smoking cessation group Quit, which helped develop the text messages and recruit volunteers for the study, says: "We are delighted with the results and hope that text motivation will now become a standard part of the quitting process." But critics said the scheme had been 'hyped up and was another flop. When 89% of participants fail, it's not a good scheme instead this money should be used to let patients use private stop smoking treatments which are much more successful'.

In another example: a study has confirmed smokers are losing faith in NHS smoking cessation services because they are 'ineffective as their products are useless' and 'they do not work and are a waste of half a billion pounds of tax payer's money'.

Serious Problem - 'NHS Drug Bias'
Champix provides a clear example of two massive problems; a) GP's and the NHS happily promote 'hyped drugs' despite all the evidence they are NOT 'wonder pills' but are extremely 'dangerous' and b) the NHS does not provide the best treatment options available. The truth is, drugs are 'promoted' while much safer and more effective 'non-drug' based treatments are 'ignored' - this scenario is endemic throughout the NHS.

The same applies to all NHS services for:

Addiction:	Estimated No in Treatment	Annual Treatment Budget	NHS Success Rate
Drugs	320,000	£1.2billion	0% to 4%
Alcohol	1,100,000	small proportion of the above	0% to 2%
Prescription Drugs	1,300,000	none	0% to 1%
Smoking Cessation	758,000	£160million	6% to 12%

Critics say 'the situation is ludicrous, patients are being denied access to treatment that do work to protect GP's pay and NHS services which don't work and are a waste of money' while 82 per cent of patients polled would like to receive some form of complementary medicine on the NHS.

Not Value for Money
It is widely acknowledged there is a culture of waste, inertia and inefficiency that is rife throughout the public sector. In the NHS there is enormous waste, staff can't even buy basic items with care or consideration to costs let alone different treatment options and even efforts to improve hospital food were blocked. This was typified in the £11bn IT scheme branded a 'farce and an utter waste of money' by Ministers. While the King's Fund's Commission on NHS Leadership and Management finds - the NHS in urgent need of a new style of leadership.

Also there are too many people exploiting the NHS, including £8.00 for a bar of soap which is used once and thrown away, £1,000 for a 500ml bottle of salt water, £6,575.00 for oral ibuprofen for analgesia costing just 8p per gram, £175.00 for just 500ml liquid paracetamol costing less than £1.00 and hundreds of other examples, basically they are not getting any value for the taxpayer. A Public account committee reproves NHS trusts for wasting money on poor purchasing while making cuts elsewhere. In a report published on 20 May, the committee says the NHS lacks a "culture of efficient procurement".

Free to Prescribe ANY Treatment
We contacted the Department of Health regarding our treatments who said 'decisions about what services, including non-pharmaceutical therapies, to commission or fund are the responsibility of the local NHS. The Department of Health does not maintain a position on any type of non-pharmaceutical treatment'. They also confirmed “doctors can use their clinical judgment to prescribe any treatment that will benefit their patient, even if it is outside its licensed indication' and 'that an absence of NICE guidance is not an acceptable reason to refuse funding treatment'. He added: 'The Government is committed to increasing patients' access to innovative new drugs and treatments'.

Gaping Hole - Ignored
This however leaves a gaping hole in deciding which treatments get used and which don't as highlighted by PCT's ignoring advice regarding IVF treatment, in addition treatments that are considered too effective and threaten jobs or self-interests are also ignored like ours and in the case of PDT.

Protectionist
This problem is exploited at the local NHS level where GP's have been told to 'freeze out the private sector from healthcare, regardless of their outcomes' to safeguard NHS services by their union the BMA to 'strangle any healthcare reforms' as the NHS has become more not less 'protectionist'. They want to keep patients within their own financial control with thousands of GP's earning more than the prime minister and some earning up to £500,000 per annum rather than referring their patients to more successful or cost-effective independent treatment specialists' as a result of this policy, patients suffer, so it's more about 'vested interests' than patient care.

Stop Smoking
It is a fact, the NHS smoking cessation service has the lowest success rate of any stop smoking method at just 6% to 12% per annum. But they employ thousands of quit smoking councilors, use million of nicotine patches, gum or lozenges and use other drugs such as Champix and Zyban but still only generate a 6% to 12% result. This total costs the tax-payer £160 million per annum, so it is NOT free.

In 2009/10 757,537 people set a quit date through NHS Stop Smoking Services. At the 2 week follow up it is claimed 373,954 people had successfully quit (based on self-report) and while still using NRT products. Total expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services was just under £84 million. The basic cost per quitter was £224 but these figures do not include expenditure on pharmacotherapy's which is estimated at £200 per person giving a total cost of £424.00

NHS Allowance
Imagine you have an NHS allowance of £500 to pay for you to stop smoking and once the money has been used, there will be no other funding available. Would you spend it with the NHS smoking cessation services where they claim you have successfully stop smoking after 2 weeks while you are still using NRT products, or would you spend it on other treatments where you had actually stopped smoking and were not using any NRT products?

Now consider you contact the NHS smoking cessation service and say 'I have a treatment which is up to 98% effective and does not involve any counseling or drugs'. Sounds great... but not if you're the smoking councilor or drug company [vested interests].

The GP/councilor is asked to look into the treatment and offer an opinion, all they have to say is 'it's no good, it doesn't work' and based upon this biased non-assessment the treatment is blocked from gaining any further recognition and they are free to carry on with the same failing methods.

Job Protection - Addiction Services
Apart from the thousands of stop smoking advisors who don't better treatments, now imagine the same scenario with the 11,000 drug workers who work for the addiction services, costing the tax-payer £1.5billion per annum and they claim to have a 4% success rate but in reality it is ZERO%. They don't want any new treatments which would be a threat to their positions and so ignore or block them to maintain the status quo as successful treatments would raise questions about their role and see job numbers dwindle. In Feb 2010 Iain Duncan Smith said 'it was unacceptable that only 4% of addicts in treatment ever get “clean” and accused the agency of “pushing aside” proper rehabilitation'.

In December 2010 the government finally scrapped the failed 13 year policy of 'harm reduction' and now wishes to focus on ending dependency rather than just maintaining it. However this policy has already been undermined by those with 'vested interests'. If any more proof were needed of the addiction services 'ongoing failure' it is the fact more than 21,000 drug addicts and alcoholics have been claiming sickness benefits for longer than 10 years, it has been disclosed.

This 'vested interest' policy is wasting billions of pounds for the NHS each year while patients who need real help suffer.

Lies, Damned Lies….and NTA Statistics
The only way to improve the results while using the same failed treatment options is to falsify them. 'Those who can be bothered to read the self-congratulatory puffs emanating from the NTA, will not be surprised at this organisation’s latest foray into the wonderful world of statistical disinformation'.

Party Over
The only way NHS bosses will improve results is to hire or commission better treatments as the focus switches to 'results' rather than 'maintenance'. However as NHS bosses are unable to achieve any meaningful results, many are taking early redundancy packages rather than going down with their sinking ship and being sacked for their poor performance as the 'harm reduction' gravy train comes to an end.

Pilot Schemes or Trials
However, the NHS are free to carry out pilot schemes or trials to test 'new treatments' or even 'ideas' BUT certain departments choose not to if the treatment is a threat to their positions. The people who are asked to assess 'new treatments' are the very people who are also threatened by them and so they reject those which are 'too successful' to maintain the status quo and to safeguard their own jobs [protectionism].

Harriet Harman MP while Commons leader said 'There was no 'dishonour' in experimenting with different solutions to 'complex' problems. That is the whole point of a pilot scheme - to find out if something works. There is no dishonor in piloting something to see whether it works and if it doesn't work then acknowledging it and trying to press on and find out what does work'.

For example: expectant mothers will be taught to hypnotise themselves before giving birth as an alternative to painkillers in NHS trial and another trial for a weight-loss scheme to help NHS patients loose weight. The study of hundreds of British slimmers found those who went to a commercial slimming group for three months lost twice as much weight as those who were given diet advice by their family doctor.

But there is no requirement to pilot a treatment if they don't want to, it is just ignored so they can carry on with the same failing methods which don't work but keep patients coming back for another 'try' or maintain them 'in treatment' to keep themselves in work. It's a complete cycle but this practice wastes at least £2bn per annum for the NHS which could be used for front line services.

This is reality of gaining NHS recognition, treatments which certain groups feel threatened by are simply blocked or ignored.

Photodynamic Therapy
We can draw a direct comparison between our treatment for addiction and dependency and a 'laser' cancer treatment called Photodynamic therapy or PDT which has been ignored for the last 10 years.

Very few people have even heard about PDT yet it is an approved NHS treatment and avoids the risks of surgery, cuts the use of hospital beds and removes the need for repeated hospital visits required by chemo and radiotherapy and could save the healthcare system up to £2billion pounds a year, according to estimates by cancer specialists at University College Hospital, London.

But due to 'vested interests' just 300 cancer patients out of more than 300,000 were referred for treatment last year, which is just 0.1%. Many patients have never even told about PDT or they are told (incorrectly) that it is 'experimental and doesn't work', which are the standard tactics used to undermine or worse still attack treatments they feel threatened by.

However after 10 years, some cancer experts have now called for more NHS patients to be given this 'pioneering' (even though it is 10 years old) laser treatment as an alternative to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy but little has changed.

As you can see, the NHS is very slow to respond to change regardless of how successful a non-pharmaceutical treatment is, indeed experts have warned about the NHS being left behind due to its slow-tech approach. Sir David Frost explains how he is 'astonished and deeply troubled' and how it is 'impossible to understand the lack of or non existent support' the NHS shows for breakthrough treatments.

Addiction Challenge
The addiction challenge was set up to improve patient treatment options and establish which method of treatment is the most efficacious with the best patient outcomes. We welcome ANY challenge to test our high-tech treatment methods against any 'evidence based clinical method' [low-tech] NHS treatment for addiction and dependency' because they do not work.

The NHS challenge has been in effect since January 2007 and no clinician, GP, scientist or medical professional has come forward to take part.

Blocking Innovation
Blocking innovation is the 'standard practice' throughout the NHS by those with 'vested interests' who wish to maintain the 'status quo' hence why they were not consulted about the NHS reforms which were first outlined in June 2007.

We need a healthcare system which is open, fair, works for all and for the greater good to break the current monopoly, patient health is not a commodity which is mutually exclusive for those with 'vested interests that want government to stay closed, opaque and easily captured' Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

With just two examples of 'protectionism' and 'vested interests' we have shown how the NHS could save £4billion per annum, now imagine all the other departments where more successful treatments are shunned to maintain the status quo. The NHS needs to save £20bn over the next 5 years, this could be achieved by using better treatments in just two departments.

We will continue with our efforts to gain NHS recognition for our treatments to 'help patients with addiction or dependency issues' but please do not ASSUME it would be automatically used as treatments which are too successful are blocked or ignored at the local level by those with 'vested interests' who view them as a threat rather than an opportunity to improve patient care. Help us save the NHS.