More Labour absurdity

Did you know that if you are receiving NHS treatment for a medical condition and you decide you would like to privately purchase some medication not available on the NHS to improve your chances, you would then be unable to access ANY treatment for that condition on the NHS?

Scandalous, isn't it?!

This is becoming a big issue in the treatment of cancer. If you hear of a drug that may prolong your life, but NICE (National Institute for Clincial Excellence - what a misnomer!) decide that the costs outweigh the benefit and don't approve it for the NHS to use, you would then have to decide whether to forgo this drug and keep all the other NHS treaments and drugs; OR you could scrape together enough money to supply this drug and find that the NHS will no longer provide you with any treatment related to your condition.

Labour do not want to create a two-tier health system. Someone should tell them that there has been a many-tiered health system in this country for years. Private healthcare has always been around, even before the NHS came along. And on the NHS you have the postcode lottery - where you live decides what treatments you get for various conditions. Even when NICE give the go-ahead to the NHS to use certain drugs, not every PCT (Primary Care Trust) will prescribe them (usually citing cost).

So you get into the ludicrous situation of one PCT willing to prescribe drugs for Alzheimer's but not drugs that would greatly improve a terminal cancer patient's life expectancy, and another that would do just the opposite. Neither condition, Alzheimer's or terminal cancer, will be cured by the treatment. The drugs are just for palliative care, to make life more comfortable for the sufferer and their loved ones as they would all have more time together.

A group of NHS doctors are preparing to take on the Department of Health over this. Have a look at their website http://www.doctorsforreform.com/.

There isn't enough money in the NHS to pay for all the new drugs that are available, especially with all the managers and admin staff they're having to employ to monitor the PCTs compliance with all Labour's targets. Co-pay, as part-NHS and part-private treament is called, will soon be the only way forward. France operates their health-care in this way. The patient pays the bill in full and is then reimbursed, receiving somewhere around 70% of the cost. The French also pay about 20% (in some cases more), which is taken from their gross salary in much the same way as we pay National Insurance (NI), that goes into the pot to pay this 70%.

The French system is not perfect, especially seeing as it is about 6 billion euros in debt, but I don't think any health-care system is. The NHS can no longer afford to treat everyone for every illness. We are either going to have to pay more NI or contribute towards our treament as and when we need it.