Because when you you vote politicians in who spend like drunken sailors to buy your vote, and then you refuse to vote them out, and then when they have spent all your money, and all your neighbors money, and any money you and your neighbors and your kids might have, and that they might have ever had, and you still don't vote them out, then you get what you voted for. Time and time again.
Dying cancer patients have been refused costly life-extending drugs on cost grounds despite a Government promise to end the "scandal" forever.
Their requests have been rejected by regional health authorities who were accused of operating covert "blacklists" to restrict dozens of treatments to save money.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than 80 cases in which desperately sick NHS patients have been refused the cancer drugs their doctor sought, in the four months since a £200 million fund was introduced to stop health authorities rationing treatments.
The fund was a key move by the Coalition so that those suffering from cancer would never again be refused drugs on grounds of cost.
Ministers were responding to years of anger over a system which meant patients were unable to secure life-extending drugs because central NHS rationers had decided the treatments were not "cost effective".
Announcing the fund last summer, Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, promised to end "the scandal" of cancer patients being refused the drugs that their doctors sought, because of restrictions by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
A £50 million stopgap version of the fund was launched in October, before the annual £200 million investment starts in April.
But this newspaper's investigation has raised serious concerns over its operation, including:
* At least 86 cases involving terminally-ill patients being turned down;
* Extreme variations in access to drugs, with one NHS region promising free access to more than three times as many cancer treatments as another;
* Local policies so restrictive that in many parts of the country, consultants are expected not to even bother asking for drugs which are not on the "priority lists".
In its first four months, the fund has paid for approximately 1,300 patients' drugs -- even though research last March suggested up to 20,000 cancer patients' lives were being shortened each year by drugs rationing.
The Government has allowed each NHS regional health authority to set its own rules about which drugs are put on priority lists, creating a postcode lottery across the country.
If treatments are not on the list, patients and their doctors have to fight harder to justify why they should get them.
Bureaucrats have created complex structures, leaving terminally-ill patients to spend their last months fighting for drugs which could increase their survival.
The policies say every possible funding route for drugs must be exhausted before the NHS will even consider dipping into the fund.
Cancer charities warned that some NHS authorities were attempting to "drive a coach and horses" through the Government pledge.
They fear the £50 million fund may actually end the financial year underspent because of the restrictions.
Andrew Wilson, chief executive of charity The Rarer Cancers Foundation, said: "We are deeply concerned that health authorities are creating really restrictive policies which go entirely against the spirit of the fund -- which was that clinicians would be able to decide what treatment their patients need.
"Some organisations are effectively operating blacklists of drugs, while others are making every patient go through lengthy bureaucracy to apply as an exceptional case, when in fact they are a cancer patient requiring treatment should be sufficient. The way some of these organisations are operating drives a coach and horses through the principle of the scheme."
In most parts of the country, if a patient requires a treatment such as Avastin for bowel cancer -- which NICE says is too expensive -- their doctors must first apply to see if their primary care trust will fund it as an "exceptional case".
If that is refused, as would normally be the case, a separate application is then made to request authorisation from the cancer drugs fund -- and if that too is refused, patients and doctors are left to attempt an appeal.
Patients refused include those seeking Avastin for advanced bowel, breast and brain cancer, Tyverb for breast cancer and drugs to treat tumours of the bladder and kidney.
NHS authorities said they had turned down requests because they did not think there was enough evidence patients would benefit from drugs their doctors sought. In other cases, they were refused help because their medical history did not match the precise criteria drawn up by trusts.
There is also concern over the "postcode lottery" in availability of drugs.
NHS North West has cited 22 drugs which should normally be funded -- while NHS South Central, spanning five counties from Oxfordshire to the Isle of Wight, lists just six treatments which would automatically be allowed.
The policies are so restrictive that in Yorkshire and the Humber, just 82 patients have been given funding. Yet across the East of England, with a similar population, 201 cases were funded.
Even those areas which seemed to have the most generous policies have tightened their belts as end of financial year approaches.
In the North West, which had backed the use for Avastin for some advanced breast cancers, and Glivec for cancer of the stomach, says patients who have not been given funding will now have to wait until April before their cases are even considered.
Several have changed their rules even in during the four months since the fund was set up, so that several patients in London were denied drugs under one set of criteria, only to have their cases reconsidered all over again as their health declined.
Mike Hobday, head of policy at charity Macmillan Cancer Support, said he was "very worried" by the findings of the investigation.
He said: "Every cancer patient should get the drugs their doctor recommends, regardless of what type of cancer they have, or where they live.
"A few extra months towards the end of a patient's life can mean the difference between seeing a child get married or graduate."
Barbara Moss, 56, from Worcester, became one of the most high-profile cases to be refused drugs by the NHS after she was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
After doctors said that without Avastin she would only live for a matter of months, her 86-year-old mother gave her funds to pay for the drugs.
More than four years later, the former schoolteacher is "climbing mountains and enjoying every moment" of life.
Her case, featured in The Sunday Telegraph, was among several to trigger a public outcry about the way NHS rationing decisions are made, resulting in a Conservative party election manifesto pledge last year to set up the £200 million drugs fund.
Health Minister Anne Milton said: "Since October, more and more patients are being treated with life-extending drugs that they wouldn't have got under the previous system. Demand for the fund will vary across the country; we set up the fund in order to balance out existing variation in access." Because when there's no money, there's no money.
Humans love money. It motivates them. That's why they call it money.
You may be able to beat it out of them for a while, but in the long run, you'd better not debase the meaning, lure, value, and reward of money. Continued on Page 47
#2
almost sounds like "death panels" or some such. Soooo Palin was wrong, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/27/2011 19:20 Comments ||
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#3
The NHS limits its expenditures on medical care one way, the USA uses other methods. Avastin therapy costs $8000/month but the manufacturer is said to have limited each patient's annual outlay to $55000. "Every cancer patient should get the drugs their doctor recommends" Nice utopian thinking. Who's going to pay for it? Is there no limit?
#4
The problem is... the cure is really simple. Create enough alcaline environment in the body and use a slight cyanide poisoning (apricot kernels) and the cancer will go into remission. Of course, the pharma does not want you to know that, about baking soda and apricot kernels. They got a big stake in the chemotherapy and they don't mind if some hapless individuals die needlessly, as long s their margin (a hefty one at that) is preserved.
The gummint disease industry, on the other hand, sees an opportunity for social engineering.
Special forces on Sunday night successfully carried out a second daring swoop into Libya to rescue civilians stranded by the crisis.
Three RAF Hercules carrying members of the SAS and SBS flew into remote locations in the desert collecting and evacuating more than 150 people. The passengers were flown to Malta, where they put in hotels overnight.
It was not immediately clear how many among the rescued workers were British, but those with UK passports were expected to be flown back to the UK on Monday.
Sunday night's mission takes to five the number of rescue flights ordered by the Government over the weekend.
Continued on Page 47
#5
Maybe some are infiltrating towards Tripoli to help out, but I suspect there won't be much action. Gadaffy has his hands full and has pulled his troops back to Tripoli. I doubt there is much in the way of pro-Gadaffy forces out where these guys are landing.
#6
OTOH WAFF [old] > BRITISH FORCES WOULD STRUGGLE TO MOUNT SMALL MILITARY INTERVENTION, CLAIM OFFICERS. This week's LIBYA-style mil-led rescues may become more remote = unlikely as military manpower + military equipment is steadily reduced or phased out out of service due to Govt-ordered MoD Budget Cuts.
Again, the US-NATO believe that ALL-OUT, "TOTAL WARS" AS BETWEEN MAJOR WORLD POWERS IS OBSOLETE, OR IN THE ALTERN ARE NOT LIKELY TO OCCUR FOR A VERY VERY LONG TIME TO COME.
VARIOUS POSTERS = opine that the COLD WAR = WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL ARMED FORCES iS BEING STEADILY CONVERTED INTO REGIONAL, GLOBAL "PEACE CORPS/PEACEKEEPING" SECURITY SERVICES [OWG = UNO Police, Humanitarian Actions].
The British Government was brokering a secret deal worth up to £10 billion with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime before Libya descended into chaos, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
For the past 18 months a dedicated Foreign Office unit has been supporting lawyers fighting to win compensation for UK victims of IRA bombs built with Libyan-supplied explosives.
Another of Labour's bright ideas.
The team was in the advanced stages of discussing a "Victims' Initiative" package with key members of Gaddafi's regime.
The possible agreement would have included payouts for the 150 families of those killed and injured bringing the claim, as well as a huge "cultural and social" investment focusing on reconciliation projects, much of it in Northern Ireland.
Sources said the agreement would have seen Libya committing between £2 billion and £10 billion to the UK, as part of an effort to detoxify "Brand Libya".
#1
The key part of this story is that the ordnance and killers Qadaffy is dumping on Libyans were mostly imported from abroad and paid for with the oil Libya sold the UK and the rest of Europe.
Oil money for Jihad, oil money for terror, oil money for insane dictators, the theme gets very little coverage.
In a daylight mission, the RAF, Special Air Service and Special Boat Service used two specially equipped Hercules aircraft to snatch Britons from the country. However, it is feared up to 300 oil workers from the UK remain stranded.
The rescue teams, who flew out of bases in Malta, searched an area four times the size of Britain to locate workers before evacuating them back to Valletta in Malta last night. They were given food and water and medical assistance before being taken to hotels to rest. They will begin arriving home today.
Within hours of them arriving back to safety, the international community ratcheted up the pressure on the Libyan dictator as the security situation in the country deteriorated. The British embassy in Tripoli was closed and its staff hurriedly evacuated.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, disclosed that a major international diplomatic offensive against the dictator was starting.
In a series of developments:
Witnesses in Tripoli told of deaths at mosques and of armed men around the city. Elsewhere in the country, pro-Gaddafi forces were said to have fired on civilians from helicopters.
The Sunday Telegraph met captured African mercenaries who Col Gaddafi had paid to prop up his regime, including a 16-year-old boy handed a gun and then told to go out and massacre protesters.
Billions of pounds of Libyan assets are set to be frozen in Britain, including shareholdings in a major publishing company and large amounts of property.
The Government is pushing for an arms embargo, a travel ban and a war crimes investigation into the crackdown on demonstrators, which appears to be reaching new heights of brutality.
Continued on Page 47
#7
A friend of mine got out just days before the "festivities" began. There are quite a few Americans in Libya - maybe as many as 5000, I don't know. I do know that HRC didn't know either. In that kind of situation, SMART planners plan for more, not less. As for ferries, some of the ferries in the Med can carry as many as 1000 passengers at a time.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/27/2011 16:59 Comments ||
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#9
Only 20-25% of the passengers were American. But why are there any Americans, not connected w/ the embassy, in Libya.
Posted by: Pearl Gleaper1127 ||
02/27/2011 18:02 Comments ||
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#10
Given our past recent history with Libya, I'm with PG1127. I'd be as shocked as all get-out that there were more than a couple of dozen American citizens, over and above embassy employees and family members and stray tourists in the whole bloody wretched country. But then, I've been leading a sheltered life since I retired from the Air Force.
#13
So the UK went in, and they didn't the PoS they released on the way out? Don't get me wrong, I think they did great work getting their people out. Just think it was a missed opportunity.
Posted by: Charles ||
02/27/2011 21:17 Comments ||
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#14
But why are there any Americans, not connected w/ the embassy, in Libya.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The British Government was brokering a secret deal worth up to £10 billion with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime before Libya descended into chaos, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. 
