In November’s newsletter we asked two very quick questions about paying for drugs privately.

We have received 12 responses (so far). While this isn’t a statistically significant number of Wandsworth residents, the overwhelming feeling is that if the NHS does not provide a drug, patients should be able to pay for the drug themselves and not be prevented from receiving further treatment on the NHS.

The original question we asked was:

Please tell us to what extent you agree with the following: Everyone should be able to pay for drugs they need if the NHS does not provide them and still get treated on the NHS

Since we posed the question, there have been changes announced in the NHS:

From the Guardian – Johnson lifts NHS ban on top-up treatment, the Daily Telegraph – Victory for cancer patients as NHS ban on ‘top-up’ drugs is lifted.

However, argument still continues about paying for drugs privately – from the Times 12/02/09 – Top-up payments will not create two-tier NHS: cancer tsar.

What do Wandsworth residents think? Post a comment on the website, or email us. If you want to take the original survey – click here.