Please support this campaign

The NHS doctors’ group Doctors for Reform has launched a new campaign to help patients who have been prevented from paying extra towards their NHS care in order to receive new drugs and treatments.

Legal opinion indicates that the Department of Health’s bar on such “top-up” payments is unlawful.  Doctors for Reform’s campaign will build up a “fighting fund” of £35,000 to enable a patient to undertake a judicial review of the current legislation.  This would establish a precedent that will potentially benefit thousands of patients around the country.

Why we need your support?

We strongly sympathise with patients who have been caught up in the current confusion over “top-up” payments.  The current NHS funding system is not transparent, and patients are unsure of their rights and entitlements.  Some patients have been able to “top-up” their NHS care and some have not.  Patients in identical situations have access to different types of drugs depending on the area of the country in which they live.

The Department of Health has said that patients should not be able to “top-up”.  But legal opinion is that such payments should be allowed under the current law.  We want to help patients who want to challenge the ban on top-up payments in a legal case. 

Your financial support is not needed to pay for legal fees; the solicitors and barristers are giving their time for free.  It is needed to form a fighting fund to pay the costs of the case if it is lost.  These costs are estimated to be £35,000.

If the case is won, all donations will be returned, unless donors are happy for the donation to be put towards the ongoing work of Doctors for Reform.

How much should I give?

All donations are very welcome, up to a maximum of £5,000.

How can I give?

You can donate over the telephone by calling Doctors for Reform on 0207 233 3824 or send a cheque to Doctors for Reform, Hope House, 45 Great Peter Street, London, SW1P 3LT.  A facility to donate on the website will be available soon. 

Key arguments and supporters

The Department of Health has argued strongly against “top-up” payments.  Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Health, has said:  “A founding principle of the NHS enshrined in every single code of practice – most recently the 2003 code of practice – is that someone is either a private patient or an NHS patient.  They can be a private patient and decide to resume their treatment as an NHS patient, but they cannot, in one episode of treatment, be treated on the NHS and then allowed, as part of the same episode and the same treatment, to pay money for more drugs” (Hansard, Column 724, 18 December 2007).

But legal professionals have identified a number of grounds that can be used to challenge the Department’s position.  We will be running this campaign with the support of Halliwells LLP Solicitors who have acted pro-bono on all of the previous cases in the area.  We also have the full support of the Doctors for Reform membership.  Several members of Doctors for Reform have agreed to give a second medical opinion, where practical, for patients considering legal action.

About Doctors for Reform

Doctors for Reform is an independent, non-party group which believes that the time has come to look at new ways to supply and fund healthcare.  Its membership is currently nearly 1,000 NHS doctors.   

For a more detailed discussion and full terms of the campaign please click here (www.doctorsforreform.com/filedata/DfRCampaignBrief.pdf).