Thursday 19 March 2015

If we can afford tax cuts why can't we afford proper treatment for NHS cancer patients

Today we saw one of the most sickening pieces of gutter politics I have ever seen. George Osborne claimed that Britain was "walking tall again".  If the economy is so marvellous why can't we afford decent care for cancer patients on the NHS.  How on earth can cutting taxes for the rich be more important than ensuring people with cancer receive proper treatment? Last week I made my views crystal clear on the state of the NHS in this blog http://barneteye.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/rog-ts-cancer-blog-part-ii-friday-13th.html  where I explained how the Royal Free Trust has got such a long waiting list that people such as me are getting telephone calls rather than proper consultations. The reason "They don't have enough meeting rooms and there are too many patients".

How would you feel about getting a phonecall from a bloke you've never heard of, to tell you that you need an operation? The treatment of some of the people who have contacted me about cancer treatment is simply beyond belief and it is getting worse.

Now there is a myth and a lie that we can't afford to treat everyone properly who needs medical treatment within the NHS. The sad truth is that by rationing treatments, patients are not treated at an early stage and so when they finally get the treatment they need, it is more expensive and less likely to be successful.  Cancer has one mission in life and that is to spread. The sooner it is diagnosed and treated the better that is for the patient and the cheaper it is, in the long term, for the NHS. And every orphan created by the starvation of funds for the treatment of their parent is a burden on social services budget.

The letter in the picture explains how my appointment to discuss results of my MRI scan was replaed with a phone call. This is purely a cost cutting measure. Just suppose I was displaying symptoms that a qualified doctor would recognise as a worsening of my condition. How would he see it over the phone? If I told him I had symptoms, how could he examine me?

But the papers will not talk about this starvation of funds. The Tory press will be full of how much better off we are with a few quid more in our wallets. If you are considering voting for Mr Osborne, just consider this fact. One in four men over 50 has prostate cancer and most don't know it. You could be voting to ration your own treatment and all to give you the price of a coffee in Tax Dodging coffee emporiums.

Cancer treatment is not the only area of the NHS being squeezed. It is however the one I've seen with my own eyes. If we have spare cash, surely the first priority of a sane chancellor, who cared for the population of the UK is to properly fund their wellbeing. The only reason I can think of that they wouldn't is because they are power hungry maniacs. That may sound a bit on the strong side, but when you've seen a friend die in agony from cancer, you realise what Mr Osborne is condemning people to. There is no torture that anyone has ever dreamed of worse than the pain of a slow death from cancer. So what do we conclude about a man who rations the treatments for that, purely to give his rich mates a pre election bung?

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