Publicity forces some humanity onto the NHS

There's nothing like those "caring" socialists to look after you. You can go blind for all they care. The fact that you have paid for your government health insurance does not at all mean that you will get the cover you have paid for

An elderly couple who faced having to choose which of them should go blind because they could not both afford sight-saving drugs have finally been saved by the NHS. Olive Roberts, 79, and her husband, Ron, 81, both suffer from wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common form of blindness in Britain. They were told that the only way to treat their condition quickly enough was to go private. However, the treatment would have cost them more than 14,000 pounds each. They could afford only one course and decided that Mrs Roberts should have it as her sight was deteriorating faster.

Yesterday Wiltshire Primary Care Trust announced that it would fund Mrs Roberts’s treatment. The trust denied accusations of a U-turn, but was criticised by campaigners for allowing the couple’s condition to deteriorate by taking more than two months to decide. The couple are among tens of thousands of people with AMD who urgently need sight-saving treatment but who say that they have been let down by local health authorities refusing to fund new and effective drugs to treat the condition.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind, which supported the couple’s case, said that four out of five NHS trusts were denying patients prompt treatment with sight-saving drugs.

Mr and Mrs Roberts had AMD diagnosed after sudden onsets of blindness last year. Mr Roberts, a retired civil servant who served with the RAF and the Royal Navy during the Second World War, was disappointed that the trust had not contacted them directly with the news. “While we are delighted that Olive can receive the treatment she needs, we have been through hell in the past three months, and this highlights the fact that many other people are not getting the help they need.”

AMD damages the part of the retina responsible for precise vision. Treatments are approved for use on the NHS in only a quarter of cases and can merely slow the disease’s onset. The Roberts were advised that only prompt treatment with the drug Lucentis could prevent blindness. However, it is not approved for widespread use on the NHS. Mr and Mrs Roberts, of Malmesbury, asked Wiltshire Primary Care Trust to fund the treatment, but were told that they would have to wait up to three months for a decision.

Advised to undergo treatment within that time, the couple decided to buy Mrs Roberts a course of the bowel cancer drug Avastin, a cheaper alternative. However, clinical trials have not proved its safety and efficacy in AMD. Paul Jakeman, medical director for Wiltshire trust, said that the NHS would fund Mrs Roberts’s treatment with Lucentis. Mr Roberts said that he could now afford to pay for Avastin for himself. “It seems that only those who shout loudest will get this treatment,” he said.

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Now it's Western Australia: Health Minister admits overcrowing in public hospitals

Western Australia's Health Minister, Jim McGinty, has conceded that overcrowding is causing problems in hospital emergency departments but says beds are being opened to deal with the problem. Mr McGinty says there's been a peak in demand at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital but more beds are being progressively opened to alleviate the pressure. "We're creating an extra 150 beds in the hospital to improve the patient flow, to make sure that patients can be seen a lot more quickly and that we minimise the log jam that's currently occurring," he said.

The State Opposition has accused Mr McGinty of burying his head in the sand about the state of overcrowding in public hospitals when he criticised the Australian Medical Association yesterday for raising the issue.

Mr McGinty accused the Australian Medical Association's Doctor David Mountain of not telling the truth when he described Perth's hospital emergency departments as being in a state of "general mayhem" since Sunday. Only a few hours later, overcrowding caused Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital to activate a code yellow alert. Doctor Mountain says a code yellow means patient care is compromised by overcrowding.

The Opposition's Health spokesman, Kim Hames has accused Mr McGinty of shooting the messenger. " It seems that every time that someone sticks their hand up and complains about conditions in the hospital the Minister virtually goes for their throat, and he's done it yet again," he said.

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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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