When the IRS is running the ICU
source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1042447/MAIL-COMMENT-How-NHS-price-life.html
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- agitator
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, given responsibility by the Government for rationing NHS drugs, has a difficult job.
The Health Service does not have infinite resources, and, sadly, will not be able to fund every expensive new treatment.
However, with such realism firmly in mind, today's decision to deny kidney cancer patients four life-prolonging drugs appears harsh, to put it mildly.
Certainly, this is the view of doctors and Cancer Research UK, who are careful not to demand the earth from the NHS, and would not be shouting so loudly if the stakes were not so high.
The drugs in question can double life expectancy and, according to one expert, are the biggest advance in the field for 20 years.
Denied these treatments, those who have spent their working lives contributing to the NHS are effectively being given a 'medieval' standard of care, says Professor Tim Eisen. Meanwhile, armies of bureaucrats continue to pocket countless millions for chasing Whitehall targets.
To rub salt in the wounds, such treatments are routinely available in other EU countries, albeit through differing health systems to our own.
So what does NICE offer by way of explanation? A cold, calculating statement that, while the drugs work for many of those with advanced kidney cancer, they are not 'cost-effective'.
What a clinical way to assess whether a person should be afforded precious extra months and years of life, or consigned to a 'death sentence'.
There will be times when NICE has to say, 'No'. But, as with 2006's disgraceful decision to deny some Alzheimer's sufferers a drug costing only £2.50 a day, this is not one of them.
The Health Service does not have infinite resources, and, sadly, will not be able to fund every expensive new treatment.
However, with such realism firmly in mind, today's decision to deny kidney cancer patients four life-prolonging drugs appears harsh, to put it mildly.
Certainly, this is the view of doctors and Cancer Research UK, who are careful not to demand the earth from the NHS, and would not be shouting so loudly if the stakes were not so high.
The drugs in question can double life expectancy and, according to one expert, are the biggest advance in the field for 20 years.
Denied these treatments, those who have spent their working lives contributing to the NHS are effectively being given a 'medieval' standard of care, says Professor Tim Eisen. Meanwhile, armies of bureaucrats continue to pocket countless millions for chasing Whitehall targets.
To rub salt in the wounds, such treatments are routinely available in other EU countries, albeit through differing health systems to our own.
So what does NICE offer by way of explanation? A cold, calculating statement that, while the drugs work for many of those with advanced kidney cancer, they are not 'cost-effective'.
What a clinical way to assess whether a person should be afforded precious extra months and years of life, or consigned to a 'death sentence'.
There will be times when NICE has to say, 'No'. But, as with 2006's disgraceful decision to deny some Alzheimer's sufferers a drug costing only £2.50 a day, this is not one of them.
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MeganMcKenzie
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As long as our priority is weapns, wars, and corporate profits the folks who actually PAY for all of the above will come last.
Civil disobedience anyone?
- 4 years ago
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MeganMcKenzie
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agitator
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MeganMcKenzie:
yes. What did you have in mind?
- 4 years ago
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agitator
