{"id":410875,"date":"2026-02-06T08:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T08:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410875\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T08:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T08:54:07","slug":"cataract-operations-delayed-as-nhs-runs-out-of-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/410875\/","title":{"rendered":"Cataract operations delayed as &#8216;NHS runs out of money&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">SpaMedica was contracted to carry out 2,000 eye operations this financial year and had performed 3,000 the year before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">NHS Somerset said it wanted to focus on other surgical areas such as orthopaedics, where the 18-week target was often exceeded. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">NHS England has instructed Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to manage demand for operations by sticking to the number already agreed to as part of &#8220;Indicative Activity Plans&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a statement, the ICB said: &#8220;All providers \u2013 NHS and independent \u2013 operate under annual NHS budgets and referrals are managed within these contracted values.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It explained that during the course of this financial year, NHS Somerset had introduced Activity Management Plans for some NHS and independent providers to make &#8220;best use of our available resources for all local patients&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Those plans range in purpose from ensuring providers do not breach agreed budgets to making sure they increase activity to achieve planned levels, the ICB said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaMedica was contracted to carry out 2,000 eye operations this financial year and had performed 3,000 the year&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-410875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}