LONDON, April 7, 2006 (UPI) -- Britain's National Health Service is advising general practitioners to refer fewer patients to specialists and to restrict patients' access to a second opinion.

Local health agencies are to be told to cut general practitioner referral rates to those of the lowest 10 percent nationally, saving the government about $44 million a year, states a plan still in draft form, produced by the London Transition Team and discovered by the Times of London.

Emergency care practitioners should "redirect" 40-70 percent of patients to general practitioners or walk-in clinics, the documents state. Hospitals that treat people who should have been sent to general practitioners will not be paid.

Research has found that one-fifth of specialist-to-specialist referrals are "clinically not necessary," the report says.

The recommendations are typical of actions being taken nationally to save money by reducing referrals, or, putting it more plainly, treating fewer patients.

But the bureaucracy needed to screen all the referrals will itself cost $2.8 million.

Copyright 2006 United Press International