Our members may like to know that the issue of ‘top-ups’ or co-payments has come to a head in recent months as a number of cancer patients have been banned from receiving NHS care after topping up their treatment with drugs not approved for use within the NHS.  

The Department of Health has consistently said that patients who "top-up" their NHS treatment by paying for privately available drugs will not be treated by the public health system and risk having their entire free medical care withdrawn.  It has argued that lifting the ban on to-ups would result in a "two-tier NHS" where those unable to afford private drugs would lose out.  However, the government is now undertaking a review of this policy in England and UNISON has submitted its own detailed response.

(The full detailed response can be viewed by clicking here).

UNISON has made clear in its submission that whilst the interests of the patient are paramount, we do not believe they would be best served by introducing top-ups.  We have argued that such a system would change fundamentally the nature and ethos of the health service where treatment is available on the basis of need, not ability to pay.  UNISON feel that the reputation of the NHS as a system of social insurance, funded by taxation, available to all, would be seriously undermined by the introduction of top-ups and the increased inequalities that would result.

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