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Cancer victim's appeal over drug Cancer drug refusal was 'illegal'
(about 1 hour later)
A bowel cancer victim is at the High Court to appeal against her local NHS trust's refusal to pay for further drug treatment for her. A health authority's refusal to fund drugs for a bowel cancer victim was unlawful, the High Court has heard.
Victoria Otley, 56, from east London, underwent chemotherapy after being diagnosed with cancer in November 2005. Lawyers for Victoria Otley argued the drug Avastin had been effective when she spent £15,000 on private treatment.
She raised £15,000 for supplies of Avastin but when the money ran out she asked Barking and Dagenham NHS Primary Care Trust to pay for more treatment. Dagenham NHS Primary Care Trust failed in its legal duty when it refused to pay for the drug when Mrs Oatley's money ran out, a judge was told.
But the trust said the drug was not cost-effective and efficacy was poor. The east London trust has argued the drug was not cost-effective and efficacy was poor.
Lawyers will urge Mr Justice Mitting to rule the decision to refuse the drug on the NHS was unfair and unlawful and the trust was in breach of its legal duty to the patient. Mrs Otley, 56, a mother of two and grandmother of three, from Dagenham, east London, has been told without treatment her life expectancy is three to six months.
In a statement issued through Bowel Cancer UK, Mrs Otley said: "It's been a long long road and one which I never expected to lead to the Royal Courts of Justice, but I just hope they support my case and help me get the treatment I need to fight bowel cancer." Immediate risk
Mrs Otley, a mother-of-two and grandmother of three, from Dagenham, has been told that without treatment with the drug her life expectancy is three to six months. She was diagnosed with cancer in November 2005 - two and a half years after she first consulted doctors about her symptoms.
Her father had died from the same disease.
Her counsel John Howell QC told the judge that under the European Convention on Human Rights, a state was under a positive obligation, when there was a "known and real and immediate risk to life", to give life-sustaining treatment so long as it did not impose a disproportionate burden on the authorities.
The judge said such decisions were necessarily medical and administrative matters, otherwise "you will have a judge-managed health service".
But Mr Howell replied that, if a decision was shown to be unfair and procedurally unlawful, patients such as Mrs Otley must be able to challenge it in the courts.
In her case, the NHS Trust's Difficult Decisions Panel had failed to give fully articulated reasons for its ruling, depriving Mrs Otley of her "legitimate expectation" that such reasons would be given.
The case continues.