Diane sorry for jumping on your thread again hope you dont mind
Hi Wanas
glad you feel better! I am not sure what you mean, the issue was co payment or have I got chemo brain.
I worked for 20 years and had private medical insurance was very lucky and healthy and didnt need to make any claims.
Love Debsxxx
Yes, well, thank your lucky stars you have access to a good NHS trust.
I was lucky enough to be privately insured before I retired and was able to continue with it. After the shambles of my local NHS trust the first time round, went private when spread was discovered in my lung. I am currently on taxotere and avastin, the avastin not being usually available on the NHS.
The private hospital is charging my insurer £5,680 for every 3 weekly dose of Avastin. My oncologist is recommending this continues indefinitely, at this rate private cost around £98,500 a year to which would be added blood tests, etc.
The same dose to the NHS is £40,500 p.a. according to the Roche leaflet I discovered in the hospital. (even this seems a bit strange when NICE guideline is £30,000 p.a.)
So for someone forced out of the NHS the cost would be absolutely extortionate - yes we have a two tier system, the well insured or very rich and everyone else. It all seems designed to ensure patients are denied access to new cancer drugs. The sooner we die the more money they save?
Did anyone note one MP’s comment in the House when Alan Johnson announced a review rather than anything definite? throwing the whole issue into the long grass. Very accurate I thought.
Anyone any better experience?
Ariadne
Hi Wanas
Agree with everything you say here, but its not really about private health care vs NHS, and people being rich enough to have private care its about cruelty- in theory you could be asked tomorrow from your PCT for 100 percent of the NHS costs that you incur as you are having some private treatment. (but it sounds like you are OK there thankfully)
And, The really bad things have happend to people without any medical insurance- just normal people who want to pay for access to drugs that are available to US and European people and Scottish.
As you say you are lucky to be in good trust. Not trying to be alarmist!
Very very few people can afford 100 percnt cost of paying for cancer treatment without ruining their families, and actually billing people for their NHS care which they have paid taxes for is inhumane
Catherine
I work in a Local Authority so would never in my life be offered private healthcare as a perk to my job. Quite rightly so that’s not what people pay their council tax for.
The point is none of us know what will be licensed next week or next year but one thing we do know as when they are licensed they are a long way off being approved for use by the NHS - some years off. Which the majority of us don’t have, why should we die waiting on these drugs to become available on the NHS - if we want to co pay then we should be able to.
When you are in the position that we are in we don’t have time to fight the rights and wrongs of the NHS etc we just want to know that we are getting the best possible care available if that’s a mixture of NHS and private licensed drugs (only because they take so bl**dy long to rubber stamp them) them so be it.
Diane
I believe that private insurance is offered to the police. I know my sister in law had private treatment through her policeman husbands work scheme. I was diagnosed while my husband was working his redundancy notice so had my mastectomy on his company private scheme. His employer agreed to continue payment for me for 2 years(out of guilt I feel). I was very grateful as it allowed me to have Taxol which hadn’t been approved by my local PCT. We all know that one of the criteria for approval is cost effectiveness not whether it is effective.
Kelley
when I worked for Kensington and Chelsea council I was offered private medicine which I refused as I don’t believe in it. I was diagnosed with breast cancer while working for them and had only NHS treatment. Can’t say it was of the finest, but I did get private treatment as part of my diagnostic tests and they didn’t detect the cancer cells (I had a core biopsy at a private hospital on the NHS) so as far as I am concerned neither the NHS nor the private sector can guarantee anything
Mole
HI all , so well done ! i have been waitin for tykerb for 2 years ! had brain tumour removal an hope to start on tykerb dont know if onl has different !
sophie