Posted on 08/06/2008 9:02:59 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Cancer patients are to be denied drugs which could keep them alive after the NHS rationing watchdog ruled that they are too expensive.
Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an "early death".
Four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years.
Nice said the drugs were too expensive, at about £24,000/year per patient, for the benefits they offered and would mean the health service was less able to afford more cost-effective drugs for other illnesses. However, the decision reignites the debate around how the NHS prioritises which drugs are approved for use.
It comes just a week after Andrew Dillon, the chief executive of Nice, said smokers and the obese should not be denied NHS medication because of their lifestyle.
Following Nice's latest decision, one surgeon said there would be no point in accepting kidney cancer patients if he was not able to prescribe Sutent because so few respond to other treatments.
Prof John Wagstaff, from the South West Wales Cancer Institute, in Swansea, said: "The possibility that we clinicians may be prevented from offering Sutent to our patients is an outrage.
"This decision will mean that the UK will have the poorest survival figures [for the cancer] in Europe."
Prof Peter Littlejohns, Nice's clinical and public health director, said: "Although these treatments are clinically effective, regrettably the cost to the NHS is such that they are not cost-effective use of NHS resources." He added that the organisation had to make some of the "hardest" decisions in public life.
Around 7,000 patients are diagnosed with kidney cancer in Britain every year. The disease progresses to advanced stage in around 1,700 cases annually.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I guess “free healthcare” is okay as long as you don’t get sick.
You are only allowed cheap illnesses.
This is the same NHS which rescinded an order to nurses and staff to reposition the hospital beds of those who needed to face Mecca for prayer.
Five times daily.
The order was rescinded when word of the new policy leaked out.
Reason #68,245 to vote for Senator John McCain...
The problem I have is that hypocrite socialists like Teddy Kennedy always bypass the restriction they impose on the rest of uss.
In Britain and Canada, crooked politicians always magically jump to the front of endless waiting lists and also get special waivers to get private treatments.
yeah, but it isn’t free
you are taxed heavily for it.
...was that, the same article about a citizen who was denied medical treatment....and (the citizen) was encouraged "to take advantage" of the State-run Suicide (Arkancide, for those in AR :) Service?
In November, just say "NO" to the 'Rats and whomever else proposes to wreck the best health care system in the world with the heavy hand of government.
I read recently that in the UK they also banned some effective Alzheimer’s drug for the same reason: too expensive.
Daily pill that halts Alzheimer’s is hailed as ‘biggest breakthrough against disease for 100 years’
“It could be available to patients within four years although, in the wake of the NHS ban on the £2.50-a-day drug Aricept, there are concerns over whether it would be funded on the Health Service. “
‘Women must have brittle bone drug’, campaigners beg Health Secretary
“Guidelines set by the Government’s drug regulator mean doctors are only able to give women with osteoporosis the cheapest drug available - even though a quarter cannot take it.
Those who cannot tolerate alendronate will have to prove that their condition has worsened by up to 60 per cent before they are allowed to have alternative treatment.
It is unethical as some women will have to get ‘significantly worse’ than other patients before receiving a treatment they need, the charity said. “
That’s what happens when you have socialized medicine, where everything is “free” — the government pays, and they decide what you can or cannot have.
“Duty to Die” Coming soon if the rats wreck our health insurance system.
We have that now it's called Blue Shield. BS wants to not pay for my MRIs because they're "experimental>" Scripps calls bullpucky and provides stats and justification. BS still trying to decide if they will pay. So far they seemed to be saying that prevention is experimental, but if I get cancer they will pay for the treatment. Good deal.
Whether you're screwed by the government or a private for-profit company, it feels the same.
Welcome to your future in 2084. If Gubmint is paying for your healthcare, it is their right, indeed their duty to lower the costs for the taxpayers.
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We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, teetotalers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.
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If you ask the government to put a price on your head they will. And it won’t be much.
COMMUNEity ORGANIZER
yitbos
No more incentive for new drug research. If there’s no market why bother?
Mark Levin talked about two people in Oregon on his show. Both were denied live-extending drugs, but suicide drugs were allowed.
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