Patients facing drugs lottery

Oct 9 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

HOW much is your life worth? Before you dismiss it as a ridiculous question, it’s worth remembering that dozens of desperately ill people across Merseyside and Cheshire have asked themselves the same thing in the past 18 months.

Today, we reveal the shocking plight of patients denied potentially life-saving drugs, against medical experts’ advice.

Treatments which could help sufferers of conditions from lung cancer to rheumatoid arthritis have been withheld by Primary Care Trusts in Merseyside and Cheshire.

In some cases, the drugs are refused because their manufacturers do not have a contract with a specific hospital.

In others, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) has refused approval as they are too expensive.

Liverpool PCT has rejected 53 requests in that time, Sefton PCT nine, Wirral seven and West Cheshire, which includes Chester, five.

The so-called postcode lottery is a national scandal.

There is simply no justification for a drug being available in one part of Britain and not in another.

For patients’ families to have to hold fundraisers so they can buy drugs they have been told will prolong or improve a loved one’s quality of life is an utter disgrace.

Frank Buckle is one of the lucky ones – he managed to find a place on a trial scheme for a kidney drug, after being previously given cheaper, less effective treatments.

Mr Buckle believes the drug has saved his life. Others, of course, will not have been so lucky.

One BMA expert claims millions of pounds of government cash is being wasted on reforms that have few benefits for patients.

Our health service is wracked by superbug scandals, claims of over- stretched medics and over-paid managers.

Meanwhile, patients are left to wonder if treatments they are prescribed are the best . . . or the cheapest.