Those in Harrow who need medical care not only suffer because of concerning access to services, waiting lists at the hospitals and shortcomings in other healthcare coverage due to the government under funding NHS, but also because of a clinician decision whether a patient meets the evidence-based thresholds for treatment defined in the Planned Procedure with a limited Threshold (PPwT) policy and which requires funding approval from the authority running a deficit budget.
There are thirty three  procedures covered under PPwT policy, including cataract surgery, grommets in children, hip replacement, correcting a deformity of the nasal septum and open MRI, for which individual funding request has to be made to the NHS Harrow Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) where  the  treatment falls under the ‘not normally funded’ category.
According to the information we received under FoI provision, Harrows CCG received 159 requests since January 2015 for individual funding, out of which many were declined (page 3).
Requests included for IVF (in vitro fertilisation), breast augmentation and laser treatment for acne.
The Harrow CCG responsible for planning and buying (commissioning) many of the health services needed by the approximately 260,000 people registered with GPs in Harrow, considers the requests for medical treatment on an individual patient basis
The Harrow CCG is planning for a £21m in year deficit in 2017/2018.
The budget deficit situation also impacts the quality of GP services as Harrow CCG has now taken  full responsibility for the management of the primary care medical services where GPs have to operate within the tight finances allowed to them.