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NHS Patients (Access to Medicines)

I respect the hon. Gentleman's judgment on this matter, and perhaps we should have a meeting with Mike Richards to talk this through. The primary point is not about what we will do—we will do many things, including make more drugs available—but about what we will not do: we will no longer withdraw that NHS treatment. There is a second point: no party, not even the Conservative party, which has its weird and wonderful moments, is arguing that the NHS must pay for every drug that comes on the market. We could never do that. Despite making more drugs available, in some circumstances a few people—even fewer after we have implemented the proposal before us—will face the dilemma of having to pay for a drug that is not available on the NHS. We believe, therefore, that the principle of separate care, as proposed by Professor Richards, is the right way to proceed.