NHS Threat to Halt Care for Cancer Patient
December 16th, 2007
A WOMAN will be denied free National Health Service treatment for breast cancer if she seeks to improve her chances by paying privately for an additional drug.
Colette Mills, a former nurse, has been told that if she attempts to top up her treatment privately, she will have to foot the entire £10,000 bill for her drugs and care. The bizarre threat stems from the refusal by the government to let patients pay for additional drugs that are not prescribed on the NHS.
Ministers say it is unfair on patients who cannot afford such top-up drugs and that it will create a two-tier NHS. It is thought thousands of patients suffer as a result of the policy.
Mills, 58, is thought to be the first to take a public stand in challenging her NHS trust to allow her to pay for the drug as part of her NHS treatment.
She wants to top up her treatment with Avastin. “The policy of my local NHS trust is that I must be an NHS patient or a private patient,” she said.
“If I want to pay for Avastin, I must pay for everything. It’s immoral that the drugs are out there and freely available to certain people, yet they say I cannot have it.”
With many “wonder drugs” in the pipeline that the NHS is unlikely to fund, her predicament is likely to be shared by increasing numbers of patients who could afford additional life-extending drugs but not the cost of their entire care.
Mills, a mother of two, who lives near Stokesley in North Yorkshire, is being treated with the drug Taxol, which is available on the NHS, but believes that her chances of halting the cancer would be improved by also using Avastin.
She is prepared to pay South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust for the Avastin and the cost of its administration. This would amount to at least £4,000 a month. Mills does not want to pay for all of her NHS treatment, however.
References :http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ |
