Letting patients down

It is ridiculous that in one of the world's wealthiest countries, kidney cancer patients seem likely, because of cost, to be denied effective drugs which would double their life expectancy (your report, 7 August). Though our "partners" in Europe now use the drugs as standard, apparently the government's rationing body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, considers the NHS cannot afford to prescribe the drugs which would keep patients alive.

I would be less likely to quibble about the extra £300 per year I pay in petrol tax in comparison to my European "cousins" if the money was put towards life-saving drugs provision.

I also wonder how the government can spend £7 million sending ministers and other public officials to the Beijing Olympics, yet turn its back on cancer patients.

BOB MacDOUGALL

Oxhill

Kippen, Stirlingshire