Lives not worth cost of drugs
The Shropshire Star, along with most of the UK media and the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, all incorrectly reported that the two bowel cancer drugs Avastin and Erbitux were being denied to patients in the UK.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has refused to license the drugs on the basis of cost for English patients. Health is a devolved matter and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales put a higher price on the lives of their own people than the British government does on the lives of English people.
The annual £20bn subsidy that English taxpayers pay to the rest of the UK covers the cost of expensive medical treatments along with the many other perks that our neighbours have become accustomed to at the expense of the same benefits and life-saving treatments being made available to the English.
The situation with these bowel cancer drugs is the same as with Herceptin and means that English sufferers are denied the most effective drugs because the drugs are worth more than an English life. Like Herceptin, these two bowel cancer drugs are available in every EU member state except England.
The British government, when considering funding for expensive medical treatments, has to consider the impact it will have on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The devolved administrations in those countries only have to consider themselves. If we were allowed an English parliament then we might be allowed the same life-saving drugs that our taxes fund for the rest of the UK.
Stuart Parr, Telford
