What do we Brits do?

[jjiimmyyt 0]

Herceptin, its the wonder drug of the day, But the money spent on it could fund x hip ops, x a mount of investment in rehab and 1.5 ICU beds for kids.

Where, having a NHS, do we draw the line, I dont know but as nation we need to have this conversation soon.

"This isn't an iron lung, people. You can actually disconnect and not die." -Dave

[peacefuljeffrey 0]

What is Herceptin?

Are you saying that money should not be spent on X malady, as long as Y malady costs less to fix?

I don't see that as a workable way of looking at things.

Should people with nearsightedness not benefit from research done to treat it because that money could be spent to do additional research into curing diabetes-related blindness?

Should every solution for expensive problems have to wait until we have eliminated 100% of the cheap problems? That doesn't make sense to me.

-

-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

[Stumpy 284]

I don't think that is really the question. The issue is that the NHS has a budget, it can't afford every drug that everyone needs, so where do you chop things up.

IIRC, the Herceptin thing is in relation to a story in the paper - Herceptin is an anti cancer drug, and a woman has been denied it by her local authority. This stuff costs £40,000 for a course. Its not an easy question to answer.

Never try to eat more than you can lift

[miked10270 0]

"What is Herceptin?"

As I understand it, Herceptin is the latest in anti-breast-cancer drugs to be released by some drug company at MASSIVE cost (they want their profit and to fund their R & D). According to the company's research it's maybe 10% or 15% more likely to be effective than current treatments (but at over 50 times the cost).

The problem is that the cost is pretty prohibitive & it's a case of whether our Socialised Medical System can bear the cost of giving it to EVERY patient who hears about it & demands it!

Maybe it'd help if you thought of our medical system as like your private health insurer but writ large with the government as the insurer & with the premiums based on a percentage of income.

In effect, just like your health insurer may decline to pay for a particular course of treatment, our NHS has a list of "approved" drugs & treatments based on costs versus benefits (& guess what getting a new & expensive drug onto the approved list means for a drug company).

The difference is that while in America this woman would be fighting her health insurers for this, here she's fighting The NHS to get a particular treatment which in her particular case they believe isn't worth the cost for the benefit she'd gain. But she, having paid her "premiums" (taxes) wants it. Of course, while it'd be sort of accepted that a big private insurer would refuse to pay out, the NHS (& by inference the government) is expected to dig into it's bottomless purse and just pay up. What does she pay her taxes for!?

Mike.

Taking the piss out of the FrenchAmericans since before it was fashionable.

Prenait la pisse hors du FrançaisCanadiens méridionaux puisqu'avant lui à la mode.