A Blow Against Cynicism

It is not often in the Dis-United Kingdom that the powers of cynical manipulation by politicians are trimmed: one such occasion is the Court of Appeal's judgement that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence acted unfairly in restricting the use of drugs to treat Altzheimer's sufferers to those whose deterioration is already well-advanced.
Down on our little allotment in South Gloucestershire this judgement struck Nosher and me as being well overdue.
'It's not as if the National Institute for Cynical Expedience can argue that these drugs do not work for those with mild Altzheimer's' said Nosher as we settled into our deckchairs on the small patch of grass outside Nosher's little shed after a morning's work on our little plots.
The sun shone, the birds sang, and our plants were growing well. There is a certain kind of satisfaction that only allotment gardeners feel.
'Still' I said 'there's a way to go yet. The Judge said that NICE's decision to withold treatment was unfair because it did not reveal the economic model it used in making its decisions to those it claimed to have consulted. When it does reveal this model, it will merely confirm that its decisions are made for economic reasons not medical reasons. NICE is about rationing care, not about clinical excellence. That's what the sceptics have said all along.'
'The tragedy is that so many people have died earlier than they needed to have done' said Nosher 'because NICE denied them effective treatment in the early stages of their illness.'
'All the more so when this cynical NuLabour government can easily find £100 billion pounds to bail out rich bankers in the City, but refuses to fund the NHS properly.'
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
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