TO THE GRAVE

A recent consultation document from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recommended that ‘age discrimination may be appropriate’ if it is deemed that a patient may be too old to reap the benefits of treatment.

This is not the first time that the NHS has advocated the denial of treatment to older people. NICE has also recommended that anti-dementia drugs should not be allowed on the NHS.

However, NICE says that there should be no discrimination against lifestyle illnesses such as smoking related disease, poor diet, or HIV.

It is appalling that those who have spent their whole lives paying taxes in the belief that they would receive medical care when they need it, find themselves denied that treatment to save the NHS money.

In a nationalised NHS, older people are expendable.