The Shropshire Star, along with most of the UK media and the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, all incorrectly reported that the two bowel cancer drugs Avastin and Erbitux were being denied to patients in the UK.
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has refused to license the drugs on the basis of cost for English patients. Health is a devolved matter and the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales put a higher price on the lives of their own people than the British government does on the lives of English people.
The annual £20bn subsidy that English taxpayers pay to the rest of the UK covers the cost of expensive medical treatments along with the many other perks that our neighbours have become accustomed to at the expense of the same benefits and life-saving treatments being made available to the English.
The situation with these bowel cancer drugs is the same as with Herceptin and means that English sufferers are denied the most effective drugs because the drugs are worth more than an English life. Like Herceptin, these two bowel cancer drugs are available in every EU member state except England.
The British government, when considering funding for expensive medical treatments, has to consider the impact it will have on Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The devolved administrations in those countries only have to consider themselves. If we were allowed an English parliament then we might be allowed the same life-saving drugs that our taxes fund for the rest of the UK.
Stuart Parr, Telford
Letter: Shropshire Star
! This post hasn't been updated in over a year. A lot can change in a year including my opinion and the amount of naughty words I use. There's a good chance that there's something in what's written below that someone will find objectionable. That's fine, if I tried to please everybody all of the time then I'd be a Lib Dem (remember them?) and I'm certainly not one of those. The point is, I'm not the kind of person to try and alter history in case I said something in the past that someone can use against me in the future but just remember that the person I was then isn't the person I am now nor the person I'll be in a year's time.
Well said, Stuart. Damned government are racist and guilty of manslaughter in my opinion. Its time the English took their power away from them. They abusing it in the most disgusting fashion imaginable.
Legalised Murder is what it is, they know cancer kills, but after all said and done, it is only the English that will die so it doesn’t really matter.
The Editor of the Star should send a copy this letter to the Department of Health, cc. Tony Blair.
Since TB apparently wishes to go out on a ‘high’ next year, he might like to announce the next step in completing devolution – a referendum on whether England should have its own Parliament and Executive.
The editor of the Sloppy Star is Dame Shirley Tart – one of Bliar’s gongs.
England should have full independence. The Scottish Parliament recive £11Billion from England. Per person the Scottish people have £1200 spent on them, people from Northern England have less than £700 spent per person. But they don’t seem to appreciate the money, the world cup proved it, but more and more Scotland is becoming more anti-English Most English independence parties want to leave the EU that’ll save £20billion or more, it soon adds up and can guaranty a good health service and education for English people.