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NHS Co-payments (Mrs. O'Boyle)

I am grateful for this opportunity to raise the case of my late constituent, Linda O'Boyle, who died earlier this year, sadly, after treatment for bowel cancer. Her case is both terribly sad and hugely frustrating. She was a warm-hearted woman with a great sense of humour who gave much of her life to the national health service and helping others. When she became ill, she had every right to expect that the NHS would be there for her, but it was not. The health service let her down in her hour of need. Many patients have suffered because the NHS does not allow co-payments, which involve a patient paying privately for a drug not funded by the NHS while continuing to receive the basic NHS package of care. If patients want to top up their care, Government policy requires that free NHS treatment be withdrawn. Often, treatment is eventually delivered within the NHS setting, but the patient is presented with the bill for all aspects of care. Sometimes, as in the O'Boyle case, the patient is forced to go private for everything. The facts of the case are straightforward. Linda was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and at first her treatment at Basildon and Southend hospitals went well. However, it was decided that she needed a second line of treatment with irinotecan earlier than planned. Then her consultant had to inform the family that treatment was not working, which came as a great shock. The desire to save or extend the life of a loved one is immensely strong. The family were desperate to find another treatment, and the consultant suggested that only cetuximab offered a realistic hope of extending Linda's life. However, as we know, cetuximab is not available on the NHS, as it was turned down by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence on the grounds of cost-effectiveness. Whatever one's views about NICE and the fairness of some of its decisions, the relevant fact is simply that state-funded health care was unable to provide Mrs. O'Boyle with the treatment that her clinician said she needed.