The health secretary, Alan Johnson, announced a review yesterday of the controversial 20-year-old rule forbidding patients from "topping up" their NHS treatment by paying for additional expensive drugs. The decision follows a furore over the cases of patients in the last stages of cancer who wanted to pay for drugs not recommended by the National Institute for Healthcare and Clinical Excellence for use in the NHS because of their cost and relative inefficacy. Linda O'Boyle, 64, was refused further NHS treatment for bowel cancer after paying £11,000 for the drug Cetuximab. She died this year. Other patients declared they would take legal action over the refusal of the NHS to allow co-payment.
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Additional Stories
Ministers in U-turn over the right to 'top-up' NHS treatments - The Independent 18th June 2008
Top-up treatment for patients reviewed - The Times 18th June 2008
NHS top-up care ban under review - BBC Health News 17th June 2008
Rethink over NHS ban on patients buying drugs - The Guardian 18th June 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
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