NHS slammed for dropping cancer patients

LONDON, June 8 (UPI) -- Doctors in England are decrying a policy of denying National Health Service treatment to patients who pay privately for special cancer drugs.

British Health Secretary Alan Johnson argues that cancer patients should not be allowed to pay for superior drugs because allowing people to do so would create a two-tier healthcare system in England, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Recent news that two more patients had their NHS care revoked while dying of cancer prompted criticism of Johnson from the presidents of the Royal Society of Medicine and the Royal College of Surgeons.

Baroness Ilora Finlay, society president, said denying healthcare benefits goes against the purpose of the NHS.

"Can we justify spending billions of pounds on the relief of relatively minor conditions and deny patients with life-threatening disease the support of the NHS when they want to bridge the costs themselves?" she asked.

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, is developing a new party policy on the issue.

"When a clinician recommends a proposed treatment as having therapeutic value to the patient, it seems cruel and perverse to withdraw all NHS treatment if the patient follows that advice," he said.