DEADLY BRITISH BUREAUCRACY

Brits have paid their government for their health insurance but their government won't deliver -- even when life is at stake

A nurse with breast cancer is launching a landmark case against the Health Service in her fight to receive a powerful life-saving drug. Barbara Clark, 49, will use the Human Rights Act to try to force her local health authority to prescribe the 'magic bullet' cancer drug Herceptin. Having already undergone painful surgery and a course of chemotherapy, her consultant has told her that she could be dead within months unless she takes Herceptin. It is estimated that the drug would give her an 80 per cent chance of surviving a recurrence of the disease over the next five years, compared to 30 per cent on conventional cancer chemotherapy drugs.

Herceptin is available only to women with advanced cancer and has yet to be approved for use by sufferers in the early stages of the disease. But Miss Clark, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in February, claims that the NHS is denying her the 'right to life' -as well as the right to look after her terminally-ill adopted son Ash, aged 11. If she wins her case, it could pave the way for hundreds of similar claims and place in doubt the role of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the Government's drug rationing body.

Miss Clark, who is divorced, said: "I am very passionate about this and determined to take it to the High Court. I am not going to stand back and let hundreds of women die. "Under the Human Rights Act everyone has a right to life. If there is a life-saving drug out there, then I and thousands of other women should be able to have it."

Miss Clark, a children's nurse, has already put her home in Bridgwater, Somerset, on the market to help raise the œ40,000 needed for a private course of the drug, should she lose her case. She added: "This is not just about me - I am also fighting for my son who suffers from an incurable lung disease. "He deserves to have somebody around to look after him. "If I got Herceptin at the late stages and lived the maximum time possible, that would still only be up to when he turns 16. "I always thought my role in life was to look after him until the end."

Miss Clark's lawyers have now given Somerset Coast Primary Care Trust 14 days to agree to prescribe her the drug. The trust has not yet formally replied, however it has little choice but to refuse because the drug is not licensed for use in Britain for the early stages of cancer. Stephen Grosz, a partner in the London law firm Bindman's, which is bringing the action, said yesterday: "If you can prove that a drug treatment is effective and that your life is being curtailed by you not being allowed to have that drug, then you have a strong case under the human rights legislation."

Jeffrey Tobias, professor of cancer medicine at University College London, said: "Many oncologists had anticipated this situation developing over the next few months because this agent looks very impressive." In July Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, personally intervened and insisted the drug was fast-tracked by NICE. It is currently conducting a review after three trials showed that it is highly effective in women diagnosed with the disease, halving the chance of the cancer returning. However approval is thought to be still 12 months away and Miss Clark believes she could be dead long before then. And even once licensed, there is no guarantee NHS trusts will pay for the expensive treatment.

The recommended course of treatment using Herceptin usually lasts for one year. Currently, those with advanced stages of breast cancer are treated on the NHS at a cost of œ19,500. But for those like Miss Clark, who are in the early stages of the disease, and who have to pay for themselves, the treatment costs about œ30,000. Dorothy Griffiths, who has set up a patients' pressure group to fight for access to Herceptin, said: "There will be a lost generation of women if this drug is not administered in time. "The reason for not giving the drug on the NHS has been one of safety. However, you can pay for the drug privately - so does paying for it make it safe? It is a ludicrous situation."

Herceptin is designed to treat the aggressive type of tumour, known as HER-2 positive, which is found in one in four of the 40,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK each year.

Source

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL hospitals and health insurance schemes should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the very poor and minimal regulation. Both Australia and Sweden have large private sector health systems with government reimbursement for privately-provided services so can a purely private system with some level of government reimbursement or insurance for the poor be so hard to do?

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