Postscript

An additional note to my posting on medication for cancer patients - from The Rarer Cancers Forum.

They have discovered that over the past 3 years 1,000 cancer patients have been refused drugs because the medication was not licensed for their disease. These are generally rarer forms of cancer.

Patients and their doctors can appeal, but one in three is turned down.

The consequence is that patients can pay for the drugs themselves. This is very generous of the NHS when these patients have been paying national insurance for many years, and in some cases this is the first big claim.

In France patients are 55% more likely to get theses drugs.

"Free for all, free at the point of need" I wonder if they would like to rephrase this. It is a free-for-all, and those who can pay survive longer, those who can't - hard luck!