What happens if you are old and sick in the UK? In many cases, it seems you’re consigned to die. This is especially evident with cancer.
The Daily Mail reports, “Too old to be given cancer treatment: NHS is ‘writing off’ patients who are over 75.”
What is their evidence?
They have statistics. They can compare what happens to their citizens compared to what happens in the rest of Europe. So, if you get lung cancer, you are “only” ten percent more likely to die within five years than you would if you were on the Continent. (To my mind, a ten percent difference should have Brits up in arms, apart from any other consideration.) But if you are a “pensioner” then you are 43 percent more likely to die.
The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse.
And Britons with prostate cancer are a fifth less likely to survive than Europeans if they are 85 and over.
Just 43 per cent live for five years, compared with up to 67 per cent over the Channel.
Patients in their 70s and 80s with kidney cancer have a 32 per cent survival rate, compared with 46-53 per cent in Europe.
Ciarán Devane, of Macmillan Cancer Support, which helped produce the figures, said: ‘It’s wrong to write off older people as too old for treatment. With a proper assessment and appropriate treatment, our research shows that many older cancer patients can live for a long time and can even be cured.
‘While it’s good news that so many older people are benefiting from treatment, many thousands more could live longer if our survival rates for over 65s matched those in comparable countries.
The barriers to getting treatment – which include age discrimination and inadequate assessment methods – must be tackled now so more older people can survive cancer and live for many years.’
Devane sounds seriously naïve. Think about it. Why would the establishment see a downside in long life for “pensioners”? It shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.
You think this isn’t going to happen over hear. Obama had already thought about it.