Cornwall health bosses defend spending on aromatherapy, horse riding and pedalows - Western...

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Health bosses have defended spending the money

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The GP led group which controls health spending in Cornwall has defended the decision to spend money on aromatherapy, horse riding and hiring a pedalow for patients.

Personal health budgets were introduced by the Government to give people with long term conditions more control over their healthcare.

NHS Kernow says it follows national guidance when it comes to allocating spending, which an investigation by Pulse magazine found totalled £267,000 on just five people.

A spokesperson for NHS Kernow said: "A small number of people have taken up personal health budgets in Cornwall to meet their agreed health outcomes, aligned to their assessed health needs.

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"We follow national guidance when agreeing personal health budgets."

Personal health budgets are intended to boost choices and control for people suffering from long-term conditions and disabilities.

Together with an NHS team or GP, patients develop a care plan on how the money should be spent.

The pot of cash can be used to pay for a wide range of services, including therapies to help with depression, help with personal care such as dressing and washing, and equipment.

The amount of money varies from person to person and depends on a patient's needs.

In Cornwall, of the total spent in 2014/15, £2,080 was spent on aromatherapy, £248 on horse riding, £7.18 on hiring a pedalow, the same on hiring a bike, just over £1,100 on swimming, £3,000 on travel, £31,000 on respite care and £1,000 on carers expenses.

Just over £21,000 was spent on agency care fees and mileage and the single biggest allocation in the budget was £187,000 on personal assistants and mileage costs.

Out of England's 209 Clinical Commissioning Groups, which control healthcare spending locally, some 33 responded to the Freedom of Information request, including NHS Kernow.

The 33 CCGs also submitted details to Pulse of their predicted spend on personal health budgets in 2015/16, with an expected spend of £589,000 each.

Extrapolated across all CCGs, this would lead to a spend of more than £120 million on fewer than 5,000 patients.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee, said: 'We continue to have real reservations about this scheme and the inappropriate use of scarce NHS money on non-evidence-based therapies.

"While individuals may themselves value a massage or summer house, others will understandably start to question why they can't also have such things paid for by the state – and that will just fuel demand."

A spokesman for NHS England said: ""An independent evaluation has shown that personal health budgets are cost effective, help people manage their health and improve quality of life."