PROSTATE CANCER : LABOUR GOVERNMENT'S BETRAYAL CONDEMNS MEN TO DEATH

As reported in the Sunday Telegraph on 17th December 2007, "a life saving treatment will be denied to tens of thousands of victims of Britain's most common male cancer after a U-Turn by the NHS rationing body."

NICE (laughably called the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence) is a government quango which rations health treatment in England and Wales and decides what treatment the NHS can deliver. This though is a great lie as it rations health care and recently and rightfully there was uproar when it tried to restrict the breast cancer drug Herceptin.

This time it originally recommended that an ultrasound technique (HIFU) should be free on the NHS for prostate cancer victims as it is non-invasive and kills nine out of ten prostate tumours. The one-off cost is £13,000 whilst Herceptin is about £26,000.

NICE, according to The Sunday Telegraph, have decided to reverse this decision in an announcement due in February which means that many of the 10,000 men who lives are lost through prostate cancer each year will be denied the treatment that would save them.

The Sunday Telegraph story and debate is here (link) and a link to an article by Professor Roger Kirby, the Chairman of the charity Prostate UK is here (link).

What is frightening is the fact it shows how cheap the Government feels mens lives are and that they are not prepared, despite all the extra taxes, to pay for this treatment. If, as some commentators have said, it was women's lives at stake, the money would be found because of the outcry. But women's lives are at stake because men who die of prostate cancer are also husbands, fathers and brothers of women.

The only logical conclusion is that men are disposable and dispensable under this Labour Government and they are condemning many to die if this is unfunded.

Now, more than ever, we need a Minister for Men who will champion this issue.

We need a Government that supports all sexes, not one that purposely ignores men.

Comments

[nigel]

http://www.themenscoalition.org.uk/Health.html

Men have 4 years less to live on average. For poor men the difference is 11 years. In France upper class men live almost as long as their female peers. So the gendered nature of death is not inevitable. I suspect a major factor is work. The link above gives the main policy objects of Men's Helth Forum

[Andy Mercer]

Contempt for any group without an effective political lobby is one of the defining charactistics of New Labour. Prostrate cancer kills many Britons, has effective treatments, and a straightforward blood test. Testing for and treating it should be a high priority for the NHS.

Unfortunately, like the mentally ill, men suffering from prostrate cancer, don't make the front page of the newspapers. Talking about men's reproductive equipment is bad manners, whereas women's cover Page 3.

It is a disgrace that de-prioritising such a treatable, but otherwise fatal condiition occurs in a so-called civilised society.

[Andy Mercer]

Contempt for any group without an effective political lobby is one of the defining charactistics of New Labour. Prostrate cancer kills many Britons, has effective treatments, and a straightforward blood test. Testing for and treating it should be a high priority for the NHS.

Unfortunately, like the mentally ill, men suffering from prostrate cancer, don't make the front page of the newspapers. Talking about men's reproductive equipment is bad manners, whereas women's cover Page 3.

It is a disgrace that de-prioritising such a treatable, but otherwise fatal condiition occurs in a so-called civilised society.