This no longer applies. Not only is the treatment of private patients quicker, but in private practice new drugs can be prescribed to treat life-threatening cancers as soon as they have been licensed for use in Britain and passed by the European authorities.

There is no waiting for private patients as there is with NHS patients, who have to continue with superseded drugs until the results of the deliberations of Nice on their clinical efficiency and cost effectiveness have been released.

Until this has been given, the budgetary authorities of local health authorities inevitably use lack of Nice guidance as an excuse for avoiding the expense.

Frequently my patients who could afford private treatment have had better drugs years before they were available to those on the NHS. The recent examples that have caused most concern to patients aware of the advances in treatment available to their richer neighbours are the aromatase inhibitors for breast cancer; Herceptin to treat some types of breast cancer; Mabthera for one type of lymphatic cancer, as well as the newer drugs for cancer of the bowel. So far as breast cancer is concerned, in a large number of patients not only are they not being prescribed the best drug, but the necessary biological tests have not been carried out by the NHS to see if the woman’s cancer would benefit from the treatment, even if the money were made available by the NHS.

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