NHS: New row over top up payments

By Laura Donnelly , Health Correspondent Cancer patients who pay for extra drugs should be denied free care on the NHS, according to the head of the British Medical Association. Dr Hamish Meldrum has angered patients' groups and fellow doctors by saying that current rules which prevent patients from combining private and NHS treatment – by stipulating that those who pay for any part of their care should pay for all of it – must be maintained. The rules have led to a number of high-profile cases in which terminally ill patients have been forced either to pay for normally free NHS treatment, or go without. One bowel cancer sufferer died after being denied free NHS treatment because she had privately bought a drug prescribed by her doctor. The BMA chairman told The Sunday Telegraph he was opposed to patients being allowed to... [read full story]