In one case a woman is warned that if she pays for one of her breast cancer drugs herself, Avastin, the NHS will immediately refuse to pay for any other treatment thereafter.  The NHS refuses to pay £4,000 a month for the Avastin and will refuse to pay the additioinal £15,000 a month for the rest of her "care".

In the other case, the increasingly servile government QUANGO somewhat misleadingly called NICE or the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (when it is neither nice nor connected with clinical excellence but merely a government rationing group), has refused to allow men with prostate cancer to be immediately treated, where indicated, with HIFU, high intensity focussed ultrasound.  This, despite HIFU having a proven international record of effectiveness and having a total cost of £13,000 per man.

As an aside, I do wonder how eminently qualified doctors, bound by the same Hippocratic Oath as the rest of us can sleep at night having, by their efforts and actions deliberately ignored the tenet "First do no harm".  I would think that condemning patients to inevitable death by refusing effective treatment on the grounds of government diktat over cost really is doing harm.   Those who do not accept this should contact any of the many hundreds of affected patients.   Remember, no doctor is compelled to sit on this QUANGO, all of them choose to and, I would imagine, believe in what they are doing.   How many dissenting voices there are on NICE I wouldn't know but they are all silent to the world and, presumably, accepting joint reponsibility.   

It would be more seemly and appropriate if the doctors on NICE were themselves to protest openly about patients being denied treatments whilst, at the same time, pointing out the huge areas of waste elsewhere in the NHS, rather than meekly accepting government orders.  Assuming, that is, that their prime reason for qualifying was, indeed, to help patients.

However, the real culprit for this rationing is the Presbyterian Prime Minister but the reason goes back long before he petulantly squabbled and schemed his way into office.  

For ten years he has managed the British economy so badly that despite or because he sold our gold reserves at the bottom of the market, despite increasing taxes in a draconian fashion (mostly in a deceitful manner) and despite raiding pension funds there are huge financial deficits in virtually every Department of State.  For example, the Home Secretary has reneged on granting the police an agreed moderate pay increase, fighting services are denied sufficient modern equipment to protect their lives, schools, local authorities and transport are cutting back their services, to mention but a few.

And, of course, the NHS is, in many areas, running at a loss with the result, that despite squandering mountains of cash on the NHS IT system the Callous Presbyterian ignores pleas for help from dying patients and their physicians whilst, instead, hiding behind a QUANGO or a local NHS administrative body.

Over to you, Gordon Brown show what you are really made of or are you doing that already?   Oh, and a Happy Christmas and a New Year.  Some of the citizens you rule may not have that pleasure.

You are PM and you know what to do.

17/12/07