I Think I Preferred You When You Were Denying People Cancer Drugs, Frankly…

Fast-food chains could be told to cut the size of portions of chips, the chairman of the NHS watchdog says.

Shouldn’t the NHS watchdog have far more important things to concern itself with, given the poor performance of so many of its hospitals?

Sir Michael Rawlins said the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) may produce guidelines to recommend smaller servings to help combat obesity.

Well, that’s fine, then. Guidelines can be ignored, can’t they?

Sir Michael, who leaves Nice next year to become president of the Royal Society of Medicine, said: ‘Someone had actually reduced the number of chips in a standard portion.

‘Nobody noticed, which is quite interesting. Nice could suggest it.

‘It could be a recommendation. When it comes to obesity we have to do more to help people reduce their intake of food.

'It is not a single bullet but a whole variety of things that we need to do to help people and help communities.’

I really don’t think we need that kind of ‘help’. I’m pretty sure we don’t need to pay you to come up with it, either…

The watchdog is drawing up guidelines to help councils and health trusts tackle obesity.

This is expected to be published in November 2012 following public consultation.

What sort of public consultation?

The sort where the public point out what useless, counter-productive nannying claptrap you’ve come up with, and you then go ahead regardless?

The details are unlikely to include specific advice telling fast-food chains and restaurants to cut chip portions.

However, Sir Michael indicated that in future the watchdog could suggest such measures.

Suggest away. I’m sure everyone will feel free to treat your suggestions with all the attention they really deserve.

None.

Gagging Nanny...

Well, it looks like at least one good deed is being done by the coalition:

The ‘nannying’ health advice dished out by the NHS rationing body is being dramatically scaled back by ministers.

The Government has asked the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to stop working on guidance on six public health topics and ‘to put on hold’ work on a further 13.

Fantastic news!

And the vital health advice they were preparing to dish out was..?

Guidance from NICE that is still in the pipeline covering smoking, obesity, contraception and road safety is being axed or left in limbo amid questions about whether it constitutes value for money.

Road safety...?!?

False Economy

Narah Bate, 81, was recently diagnosed with a rare bone marrow cancer and given potentially life-prolonging drugs.

When she developed blisters in her throat and sores on her face, the professor treating her changed the prescription.

But that didn’t go down too well with NICE, who decided the new drugs were just too expensive.

But medicine rationing body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) denied her the drug Imatinib saying it was too expensive and she would have to remain on hydroxycarbamide.

Still, it’s a harsh world, and we all have to make sacrifices, and this way the NHS saves money to…

Oh. Wait:

Audrey, 62, of Fleet, Hants, said: “The side-effects of this medication are so bad she had to stop taking it for a week to allow the blisters in her throat to heal. That meant a stay in hospital and a blood transfusion.

“Now she’s having a blood transfusion almost every week. That takes up a hospital bed, using staff time. They say that Imatinib is too expensive, but treating her this way must cost more.”

Indeed.

What’s that old saying about those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing?

Mixed Messages…

So, if you are a terminally-ill man with a ‘DNR’, the NHS will override that and attempt to keep you alive at all costs:

Hospital chiefs have apologised to the family of a terminally-ill grandfather who died in agony after staff tried to keep him alive against his wishes.

Arthur Johnson, 64, had signed 'do not resuscitate' forms instructing medics not to revive him if his heart stopped.

But after he was rushed to hospital, his relatives were horrified to find a full crash team fighting to keep him alive.

But on the other hand, if you are a young mother fighting cancer whose doctors have suggested a drug to prolong your life, it’s ‘Nope! Far too expensive’:

A mother fears she will not live to see her son's first day at school after NHS bosses refused to fund the only cancer drug that can help her.

Nikki Blunden, 37, who has breast cancer, says she has been handed a death sentence.

Is it me, or..?

Cancer drug hopes to be dashed.

A drug that significantly extends life expectancy for patients with liver cancer is set to be refused by the government's health watchdog.

Nexavar increases survival rates by 44 per cent and without it, the only option for patients is supportive and palliative care to make their final months less painful.

However, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is set to refuse to make it available on the NHS.

In the UK, there are approximately 2,800 new diagnoses of primary liver cancer made every year and the disease is responsible for causing around 2,800 deaths annually.

In May this year when NICE published their preliminary findings into the drug, they said that the drug "would not be a cost-effective use of NHS resources".

The cost of Nexavar per month is £2980.47 and the patient access scheme, run by the drug company, is every 4th pack free.

Source : ITN via Yahoo News

Nice Guidance Not

From the Times today

She is also among the one in five sufferers — mostly women — for whom the most common drug, alendronate, is not suitable, meaning that she is prescribed the more costly strontium ranelate. But under draft guidance from NICE, she said, “my doctor would be unable to prescribe an appropriate medication until I had fractured a bone and my bone density had got considerably worse.

“This seems like madness. It's going to cost the NHS a lot more than the treatment costs if people break their bones.”