Death Panels Exist (in England)

John on March 15, 2010 at 8:35 am

From the Daily Mail:

Up to 20,000 people have died needlessly early after being denied cancer drugs on the NHS, it was revealed yesterday.

The rationing body NICE has failed to keep a promise to make more life-extending drugs available.

Treatments used widely in the U.S. and Europe have been rejected on grounds of cost-effectiveness, yet patients and their loved ones have seen the NHS waste astronomical sums.

NICE, the National Institute of health and Clinical Excellence, promised a year ago to make it easier for drugs for rarer cancers to be approved.But since then four drugs which could have benefited 16,000 people have been turned down outright and a further six which could have helped 4,000 more have been provisionally rejected.

But don’t worry, NICE is spending plenty of tax money on important things:

Last week it emerged that £21billion – a fifth of the entire annual budget – was spent on failed schemes to tackle inequality.

And if you think about it, the grave makes us all equals.

Category: Health & Education |