A Grandmother whose free NHS treatment was withdrawn because she paid privately for anti-cancer drugs has died. Yesterday Linda O’Boyle’s husband condemned the policy behind the decision and said it had made his dying wife’s last months even more stressful. Mrs O’Boyle, 64, had been receiving state-funded treatment - including chemotherapy - for colon cancer.
But when she took cetuximab, a drug which promised to extend her life but is not available on the NHS, her health trust made her start paying for her care.Mrs O’Boyle, an NHS occupational therapist, is believed to be the first person to die after being denied free care because of ‘co-payment’, where a patient tops up treatment by paying privately for extra drugs. Co-payment was blocked last year by Health Secretary Alan Johnson because he claimed it would create a two-tier Health Service. More
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