Patients ‘should top up treatments by paying’

An expert has claimed that patients should be allowed to augment their NHS treatment by paying a share for more expensive drugs.

Professor Karol Sikora has claimed that the volume and expense of new cancer drugs means the NHS will struggle to pay for them and that patients may soon need to subsidise their treatments.

He told BBC One’s Six O’clock News: “Over the next five years there are 40 cancer drugs coming and all the prices are the same level – 40 to 50 thousand pounds a year.”

“The NHS just simply can’t afford it,” he added.

However, this was rejected by Tony Harrison of the King’s Fund medical think tank.

He said: “The NHS is based on equal treatment for equal need.”

Recent reports have suggested that the NHS has lost millions of pounds from “health tourists” who arrive outside the EU for treatment.

The Telegraph puts this cost in excess of 50 million pounds.