What Price Would You Put On A Life?

Have you ever thought about what value you would put on the life of a loved one?

Not a particularly pleasant topic to consider is it?

On Monday of last week (2nd February 2009) a meeting was scheduled to discuss this very topic but unfortunately nature interrupted proceedings and the meeting was cancelled due to the adverse weather conditions. As of today, no re-scheduled date is available.

So who was it that was going to decide what price a life is worth?

Quite simply it was the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE).
If you haven’t heard of them, NICE work with the NHS to decide what expenditure there can be for all drugs including those for life-threatening conditions.

I am sure you have read or heard numerous stories of patients being denied drugs that could prolong and indeed improve their lives. So how do we put a value on life?

NICE currently use a system called “Quality Adjusted Life Year” or “QALY” for short. Under this system, the values are currently set at between £20,000 and £30,000. Disturbingly, these figures have been in place for over a decade and take no account of inflation or increases in NHS spending.

Patient groups have long argued that the current system is totally inadequate and needs a complete overhaul. Research would indicate that the general public feel the same as they indicate the values to be between £35,000 and £70,000. In addition, the public are confused by how living in one region affects these vital decisions. As an example, late last year, Carol Rummels won the right to have South Glocestershire Primary Care provide Tarceva, a cancer drug which will cost £1,500 per month. This was originally denied by NICE. The stupidity of it all was that if Carol had lived in Scotland, this drug was and still is, available free!

Helen Mason, lead author of a Newcastle University report, has said: "For the first time we have some estimates of what the public values most. While the methods need to be refined, it is important to get the public involved because, after all, it is their money. Quite soon there will be a body of evidence which will influence the way NICE and similar bodies across Europe make decisions."

Let’s hope NICE make the right decisions as it can only be seen as morally wrong of them to deny life-extending drugs to anyone who needs them and systematically impose a death sentence on those most vulnerable within our society.