Rationed health care prescibes pain for 40,000

Telegraph:

...

Patients' groups have reacted angrily to new guidelines which will mean 40,000 people with rheumatoid arthritis will have possible treatments withdrawn.

Without the drugs the patients will suffer more pain, the possibility of more surgery and long-term disability, it is claimed.

The decision amounted to a "prescription for pain", experts warned.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), today issues a final appraisal document – the last draft before definitive guidance is issued – stating that patients who do not respond to one powerful drug cannot try another of the same type.

Currently doctors are able to try patients on three variants of a drug type which work by blocking the action of a chemical.

If one does not work or its effectiveness wears out over time, sufferers can switch to another, prolonging the period they can remain fit and active.

But the drugs are very expensive, with even the cheapest costing around £100 a week per patient.

Many rheumatoid arthritis patients live with the disease for decades. They argue that cutting down the options will leave them needlessly living in agony for years.

Cutting access to the drugs will speed their decline, meaning they are less able to work for a living and will have to rely more on benefits and care, campaigners say.

Ailsa Bosworth, Chief Executive of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society, said: "This decision is another nail in the coffin for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in England and Wales.

...

When you have centralized decision making it is likely that those decisions will have motives other than the comfort of the patient in mind. It is a collective loss of freedom for those who are forced into a collective health care system that rations the care.