Government 'to lift NHS ban on top-up drugs'

A ban on patients topping up NHS treatment with expensive private drugs is to be dropped by Health Secretary Alan Johnson, it was reported.

The Telegraph said Mr Johnson had indicated his intention to ease the restriction to ensure the system "doesn't deny people essential treatment unduly".

Earlier this year he ordered cancer tsar Professor Mike Richards to review the rules amid an outcry over some patients being refused care after buying life-prolonging drugs not authorised as cost-effective for NHS use.

Some had threatened legal action.

The newspaper said Mr Johnson would announce changes within days of receiving the report, due next week.

He said he wanted to "look at a fair system that doesn't deny people essential treatment unduly" while ensuring "we don't undermine the basic principles of the NHS, which is treatment available to all, free at the point of use (and) irrespective of your background".

The new system could involve the patients only receiving care at home and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence issuing advice on the effectiveness of drugs it does not approve for the NHS, the Telegraph suggested.

Ten days ago it was revealed that about 1,000 patients a year were already topping up their NHS care as hospitals dodge the rule on top-ups to help patients gain access to drugs.

A private firm, Healthcare at Home, said it had contracts with 30 NHS hospitals to offer treatments privately to patients who were also receiving standard care.

Some hospitals are circumventing rules which state a person cannot be both an NHS patient and a private patient in the same episode of care by allowing patients to see one consultant and treating that as one episode of care before another consultant writes a private prescription for the drugs, which are supplied to the patient's home by Healthcare at Home.

A Department of Health spokesman said: "As the Secretary of State made clear when he announced the review, Professor Mike Richards will report his findings by the end of October - and the Secretary of State will make these findings public."

A senior DoH source insisted Mr Johnson had simply been talking about the terms of what Professor Richards' inquiry was designed to examine and had made no suggestion top-ups would be allowed.

"The Secretary of State made it very clear in the interview that we are waiting to receive Professor Richards' report; absolutely no decisions have been taken," she said.

"It is incorrect to say that he was saying he was preparing to allow top-ups."

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Mr Johnson seems to have gone further than he should have done, and has got himself in a mess.

"Reform of the rules on top-ups is absolutely necessary, but it must be combined with changes in the NHS to ensure that all patients get drugs which are currently denied to them, but are routinely available across Europe."