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 Thursday, May 22, 2008
British Physician Sees The Light
By Paul Hsieh, MD @ 12:05 AM PermaLink

British ophthalmologist (eye specialist) Sarah Anderson used to be a big supporter of their National Health System:
...I have spent my working life in the NHS. And for all its perceived failings, I have been proud of its fundamental role in our society - to provide equality of care for all.
But when her own father got cancer, she saw a different side to the system:
...[W]hen I've read about people being refused particular drugs simply because of where they lived, I've always believed there must be another reason - even if it wasn't immediately obvious at the time.

I never for a moment thought that a life could be decided by something as arbitrary as one's address.

Yet that is what has happened to my father. And it is only now, sitting on the side of the patient, that I have seen the injustice inherent in our system and the devastation it can cause.
Basically, the NHS denying him the chemotherapy agent he needs. And if the family attempts to purchase the drug with their own money, then he will lose complete access to the government system. The full story can be found here: "How the NHS is letting my father die".

(Via Health Care BS.)

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