Socialists retreat: Patients on NHS to be freed to use top-up drugs

Patients who pay for "top-up" drugs will no longer be denied free NHS treatment, the Government will announce next week. In a major reversal of policy, the Department of Health will review the present rules, which ministers regard as unfair and a penalty for people fighting life-threatening illnesses such as cancer.

It will announce an end to the "co-payments" system, in which those who buy drugs that the NHS has deemed too expensive are made to pay for the rest of their care. The move comes after it was disclosed that a patient who paid for a drug to treat bowel cancer died after being denied free NHS treatment. Linda O'Boyle, 64, from Essex, was told that her decision meant she was considered a private patient.

Ministers have been defending the policy for months, claiming that to scrap it would lead to a "two-tier" NHS in which the wealthy have access to better health care. But in recent weeks they are understood to have been persuaded that the NHS already contains "top ups", particularly in dentistry and in some hospitals, where patients can pay for private rooms. They also believe that the change will apply to a very small number of patients each year.

The Government is also desperate to back a popular policy in the face of recent setbacks. The announcement on the changes is expected to be made on Wednesday.

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More of that brilliant government "planning"

Brand new Emergency Dept. building but not enough staff to man it. An almost British level of bureaucratic incompetence

The $22 million Redcliffe Hospital emergency department revamp is struggling to cope with demand, the Redcliffe Herald has been told by patients. Just weeks after the launch of the state-of-the-art extension, the ED came under fire from a Clontarf mother, who did not want to be named, who told the Herald her feverish 14-month-old son had to wait three hours for treatment. "He was taken there by ambulance with a 39 degree temperature and was mottled looking,'' she said.

"I was told to ask for his temperature to be taken every 30 minutes. After the first time it took three hours of me hounding them before they tested him again. I was told three doctors were off sick and there were too many patients.'' She eventually took the boy home and later consulted her GP. "It's a real slap in the face when they build all these nice and flash buildings but it's the same old problems. The needs basis is there and the shiny new Emergency Department isn't fooling me."

The Herald was also told of an 18-year-old man who, last month, waited about seven hours for surgery after being badly bashed at Scarborough. While the Herald has published a litany of complaints over the past three years about the ED, it has also received many letters of support from patients.

The new, larger ED has 41 treatment areas and a new five-station triage zone. It's capacity is expected to grow from 47,000 annual patient treatments to 50,000. At its opening Health Minister Stephen Robertson acknowledged the Peninsula had an "increased demand" for hospital services but said the new ED would help responses to the demand. State Member Lillian van Litsenburg, who is travelling overseas, previously said the new ED would "improve patient flow and in turn enhance the day to day running of the hospital"...

One mother, a former nurse, who had seen the Redcliffe ED full said the service was still being clogged up with unnecessary patients. ``There are lots of people who don't need to be there, but they won't pay $60-$70 to see a GP and they go to the hospital for a snotty nose,'' she said. She knew of people from northern Brisbane suburbs who saw Redcliffe hospital as the closest option for treatment. ``They look at Redcliffe compared to the Royal Brisbane as easier to get to,'' she said. ``But they need to consider Prince Charles Hospital as an option, which has an under-utilised ED.''

Queensland Health held a community forum last night to discuss the construction of a GP super clinic at the Redcliffe Hospital. It will be a 24-hour, bulk-billing service aimed at taking the pressure off the ED, by servicing less urgent medical issues.

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