Great news this week as my last MRI scan shows that no further gamma knife (GK) treatment is required to my brain at the moment. So it proves beyond doubt that the excellent GK procedure I had in Sheffield has worked well, and should be more widely available to treat seriously ill patients in centres across England.

I am still smarting from the last-minute decision, made by NHS England (NHSE) to abandon the planned new GK Centre in Oxford as this would have been used by both private and NHS patients.

Our requests for an explanation have been met with a simple acknowledgement and I’m not holding my breath. It appears they don’t seem to think an explanation is due and yet they state on their website: “The NHS belongs to the People: A Call to Action”.

It also goes on to say that James Palmer, a clinical director for such specialised services, is leading the development of the strategy and states on the website: “We want to hear from as many people as possible over the coming months about their views on the future direction of specialised services.”

No one has asked any patients known to me and we support over 200 online. Perhaps this counts as a public consultation?

If they want feedback from me, then when I was last referred for GK treatment there seemed to be a distinct lack of urgency from NHSE, as my consultant had to wait six weeks for the treatment to be authorised.

The system is archaic and patients may be dying from these cruel needless treatment delays.

I dread to think of the number of cancer patients we have lost to delays or because they have been unaware of what treatments are available and how to access them.

I was clearly mistaken, as I thought that a major change was meant to be taking place in the NHS to ensure that meeting patients’ needs was now to be a priority in this brave new world. After all it has cost us over £3billion in restructuring costs, and I read that one in five managers have been paid off and since re-employed as health consultants.

I was disappointed to read a report from Cancer Research UK dated March 3, saying the Government’s promise that all cancer patients would receive advanced radiotherapy has not been fully achieved as “such innovations have been inconsistent leading to inequitable access to these services for patients”.

This is a setback for the Government’s drive to improve cancer survival rates and must be addressed.

The cruel former postcode lottery still threatens access to treatment.

In January it was reported that thousands of patients suffering cancer and other serious illnesses are still being denied drugs/treatments they need from the NHS.

The worst findings were for my own kidney cancer, which affects more than 8,000 patients, with other diseases also affected.

NICE makes rulings on whether drugs are effective and of good value, and has been criticised by refusing many drugs said to only give a few extra months of life.

So you can see how we all welcomed the innovative introduction of the temporary Cancer Drugs Fund by Prime Minister David Cameron, and I will be forever grateful to him for this.

Cancer patients now have something new to worry about. NICE issued a press release last week.

There will be a consultation on changes to the way it makes recommendations on new medicines and other treatments.

Stealthily hidden away in the small print is the fact that NICE intends to remove the rules that ensure treatments used near end of patients’ lives are given special consideration.

So we are left with no guarantee that similar treatments would be approved in the future.

If these criteria had not been in place then almost 13,000 patients would have been denied treatment.

The Government promised patients they would be able to access the drugs their doctor recommended.

The NICE proposals are nothing less than another rationing exercise. Cancer patients are again being abandoned and left to fight their corner whilst many are feeling so ill with this disease.

We feel we are considered as little more than an expensive nuisance on the NHS balance sheet. Patients don’t know who to believe once again.

NICE’s proposed reforms would be a backward step for cancer which now affects one in two people.

The Chancellor is now to come down harder on people hiding money off-shore.

I welcome such action, as uncollected taxes are said to total £15billion each year.

These figures are not easy to estimate as I have seen higher ones quoted, but this is a step in the right direction and perhaps the NHS could be better funded together with care for our elderly.

  • NEXT TIME: Clive will return on Tuesday, May 13