‘Cruel’ NHS drugs ban lifted
Nov 5 2008 by William Green, The Journal
MINISTERS yesterday lifted a “cruel” ban on desperate patients paying for their own drugs while still receiving NHS care.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson also pledged to speed up the process of approving new medication for use on the health service with the aim of minimising the numbers forced to pay for treatment.
The news comes after North Tyneside Primary Care Trust was exposed as one of country’s slowest in making decisions on potentially lifesaving drugs.
A Journal investigation also found 42 patients in the North East had been refused such medication in the past two years – forcing some to pay for them.
Karen Gault and her Jesmond family have spent £36,000 on anti-cancer drugs after being denied them on the health service. Yesterday husband Paul said battling with the system was like “banging your head against a wall”.
Under the new system, PCTs in each region will determine how much to charge patients for these services although the NHS “should not be seen to be profiting unreasonably” from patients.
Patients paying for drugs will receive them at a “different time and in a different place” to their health service care - which could be a private company building or a specially-designated part of an NHS hospital.
They will also pay for any cost over and above what would have been provided on the state, including associated scans or tests, staff costs of administering the drug, follow-up care and cost of any NHS equipment used for private purposes.
Cancer tsar Professor Mike Richards compiled 14 recommendations fully accepted by ministers.
The recommendations include steps to allow the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) “greater flexibility” in approving more expensive drugs for terminally ill patients.
Peter Atkinson, Tory MP for Hexham, said: “It always does strike me as pretty appalling that people cannot get these drugs on the NHS.
“Of course there has to be a balance between cost and effectiveness, but with all the billions of pounds that go into the NHS, I don’t understand why people have to pay.
“But if people are forced to pay, it is simply cruel to say you will have to pay for the rest of your treatment as if you were a private patient.”
Liz Twist, head of health at Unison North, said: “We are concerned that introducing top-ups will shake the very foundation of the NHS because the founding principle is that it is there at your time of greatest need whether you can afford it or not.
“That is really key to people and this could be the thin end of the wedge.”
Health Secretary Alan Johnson insisted the move would not breach the NHS founding principles, for example with patients not getting a choice of hip joints of different costs during their NHS operation.
Mr Johnson said the NHS would be damaged if it continued with a “cruel procedure”.
