The pundits and editorial pronouncements have not yet
started, but start they will: a seriously unwell five year old boy taken from
Southampton General Hospital by his parents and taken with the rest of the
family to southern Spain has
been found after a frantic Police search. Ashya King has a serious brain
tumour. His parents have become convinced that the NHS is not giving him the
best treatment.
That parents become concerned and focused on a sick child is
not just understandable, it is an entirely natural reaction to the condition.
So the sentiments expressed by Brett King, Ashya’s father, in
a video released overnight, will strike a chord with many who have been in
a similar situation. Their agenda is simply to give their child a chance. The
press’ agenda is rather different.
That is evident from
the Mail’s chosen headline: “‘NHS doctors would not give Ashya the
treatment we wanted’: Father who fled with brain tumour boy, 5, to Spain posts
heartfelt video explaining move hours before parents are arrested near Marbella”.
Yes, the NHS is to blame for what happened. And the NHS could not provide the
treatment. Except that the NHS can
provide it.
What both the Mail,
and the Telegraph, are not telling
their readers is that, since
2008, around 370 patients have been approved for Proton Beam therapy paid
for by the NHS. And Proton Beam therapy is what Brett King is convinced his son
needs. He is so convinced that he has asserted that he will pay for the
treatment himself (the cost per patient for treatment alone is around £90,000).
However, and in this case we encounter a significantly sized
however, as Brett King has also said in his YouTube video, the team treating
Ashya have said that, in his case, Proton Beam therapy “would have no benefit whatsoever”. But Mr King wants to find a
cure, so as soon as he is given this information, he Googles the details in an
effort to disprove it. It’s entirely understandable.
His recollection was that “I went straight back to my room and looked it up and the American sites
and French sites and Switzerland sites where they have proton beam said the
opposite, it would be very beneficial for him. Then I spoke to them again, ... saying OK - I will sell my property in
order to pay for the proton beam”. The press is already suggesting
that this is down to inability on the part of the NHS.
But it is not. As to whether Proton Beam therapy is
the answer in this case, Cancer Research UK notes “The data on adults from the UK treated abroad seem to show that they
are doing well after proton therapy, but the patients who get the treatment
have been selected for it specifically because their doctors think they have a
good chance of doing well from it”. In other words, it is not conclusive.
The press won’t care about that. Ashya King is the latest NHS bashing excuse.
4 comments:
It's certainly an excuse for NHS-bashing, and to me it looks like an example of a hospital and a police force going into a panic when no crime had been committed.
Perhaps seeking a European Arrest Warrant for the parents was a pre-emptive move to head off possible tabloid criticism for "failing in their duty of care"?
So the European Arrest Warrant is a good thing unless used to send UK citizens foe trial abroad?
Arnold: Our laws on murder are good except when used to convict the innocent.
On Saturday I watched a BBC bulletin in which they reported that Hampshire Police had said that no offence had been committed - but they had still issued an arrest warrant. I'm not sure how that works! Maybe the Spanish judge will ask. I suspect that there is a lot of arse covering going on.
Post a Comment