Minister backs NHS campaign

He joins Prime Minister Tony Blair who has already backed our campaign, which aims to save the NHS £500,000 of the millions of pounds being wasted by patients.

Mr Milburn applauded the Daily Echo for its campaign, and appealed to the pub-lic of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to help.

He said: "Congratulations to the Daily Echo for your campaign. As well as right to fast access to the best care, patients also have responsibilities when it comes to using the NHS.

"The basic problems facing the NHS today are waiting for treatment, lack of staff and outdated ways of working.

"Their cause is the historic lack of proper investment in the health service something which this government is tackling with the biggest spending boost for the NHS in a generation, backed with fundamental reform to improve the quality and speed of care."

He added: "The biggest resource the NHS has is the time and expertise of its doctors, nurses and other professionals. But when a patient doesn't turn up, their time and skills are wasted, when they could have been spent on someone else. This is why the Daily Echo campaign is so important."

Mr Milburn urged members of the public to keep their appointments and, if they could not make them, to let hospital staff know in order to save wasting valuable resource and said the £500,000 saved could pay for 125 hip replacement operations, or 100 heart bypasses.

He said: "If you get a letter from your doctor or hospital, make sure you read it carefully and make a note of its contents.

"Don't assume that if you can't be bothered to turn up for an appointment you are committing a victimless crime.

"First, you could be the victim. How do you know that the appointment isn't important? Second, some-one else could be the victim. The staff you have stood up could have been treating them instead."

Just by calling to cancel an unwanted appointment, returning a pair of crutch-es you no longer need, or putting an empty crisp packet in the bin, you could be saving your health serv-ice valuable funds, which could be spent saving some-one's life.

We highlighted recently that the 75,000 missed appointments in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight last year cost the NHS some-where in the region of £3.5m.

Almost £10,000 was lost last year by Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust just by people not returning walking sticks, crutches and walking frames they no longer needed.

Southampton University Hospitals Trust recently spent £9,500 on new rub-bish bins, because the hospitals' litter problem is so bad.

These bins were more than £35 more expensive each because the trust attempted to combat the problem of discarded cigarette ends by providing rubbish bins with ashtrays on the top, despite the hospitals and the grounds being no-smoking areas.

The level of vandalism, theft and abuse to staff has got so bad in our hospitals that Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust had to install a £250,000 security system, which was recently revamped at a cost of £35,000.

All this money should have been spent on patient care, and could be costing people their lives.

HAVE you missed out on treatment or care because the hospital could not afford it? Do you have any ideas on how the pub-lic could help the NHS? If so, call Daily Echo health reporter Emma Barnett on 023 8042 4505 or e-mail her using the link above.