In an earlier post, I noted some liberal mythmaking regarding Giuliani’s argument for the superiority of prostate cancer treatment in the U.S. over the U.K.’s socialized system. It turns out there’s more.
According to the Observer (the Guardian‘s sister paper) the type of prostate cancer treatment Giuliani received in 2000 wasn’t even approved by Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence until 2005. But approval was the easy part, it seems.
Last June, the Times reported that in Britain, men were being denied brachytherapy treatment because the National Health Service refused to pay for it. The article also noted that only 10 hospitals in all of England offered the treatment.
I also came across this speech delivered by John Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, to the National Prostate Cancer conference in London last November, in which he noted that “men with prostate cancer were also having to take on ‘titanic battles’ with their Primary Care Trusts to have tried and tested treatments like brachytherapy…”
Neate continued:
“Whether the battle is for Taxotere or for brachytherapy or for any other form of tried and tested treatment, it cannot be acceptable that men and their families who are already having to deal with the tough news of a prostate cancer diagnosis, have to wrestle with NHS bureaucracy at the same time.”
Socialized medicine at work.