Home News Columnists Ken Oxley

Our sick forced to beg for their lives

Aug 31 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

IT was a sight that would make Nye Bevan spin in his grave. More than 50 cancer patients and their supporters staged a protest at the HQ of the Government’s drug advisory body this week . . . literally begging for their lives.

The founding father of the NHS could not have envisaged such injustice in this, the organisation’s 60th year. But people have been driven to act following a decision by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to refuse them drugs that could extend their lives by up to two years.

Of course the NHS must ration its resources. It is not, after all, a bottomless pit. But the four drugs currently banned by NICE are prescribed in European countries of similar wealth to the UK. I’ve yet to hear a convincing explanation for why Britain can’t afford them.

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