Clegg says 'Cancer Drugs should be available for all' (Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats)

Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats <info@scarboroughandwhitbylibdems.org.uk>

Clegg says 'Cancer Drugs should be available for all'

September 11, 2008 9:21 AM

Speaking to the think tank Reform in central London, Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg today called for patients to be allowed to pay for extra treatment without losing the right to free NHS care.

Nick Clegg, speaking of incidents of patients being refused NHS treatment because they had bought life-extending cancer drugs, said:

"There is a real, human conflict between the needs of a large organisation and the needs of the individual. An extra week of life may not count for much on a bureaucrat's chart. But if you're saying goodbye forever to your children it couldn't matter more.

We cannot continue to deny people the right to top up their care when the NHS has finite resources and cannot provide everything for everyone."

Branding Labour's experiments with NHS reform as 'a failure', Nick Clegg said:

More than any other public service, the NHS has been the guinea pig for the New Labour experiment in massive central spending and control. Labour wants to control every surgeon's knife, every nurse's thermometer, and every dentist's drill from the Health Secretary's office in Whitehall.

"Everyone should have the right to private treatment, paid for by the NHS, if the waiting time is not met. We need a network of Patient Advocates to provide information, guidance and support to those who need it.

Reform has endorsed this Liberal Democrat proposal in today's report and supported their view that Health Protection Providers - or PCTs in our system - should be allowed to incentivise or even pay people for making healthy choices like quitting smoking or going to the gym regularly."

Commenting on Nick Clegg's speech Lib Dem PPC Tania Exley-Moore said "The decision of the PCT to ignore local wishes and impose a Polyclinic on Scarborough is another example of the high handed attitude of the NHS.

Our NHS is at the core of what many people feel it is to be British. It's close to everyone's heart but sadly the NHS shuts its ears to what people want".