Cancer was one of the success stories of the NHS with improvements in research treatment equipment and screening she added

Cancer was one of the success stories of the NHS with improvements in research, treatment, equipment and screening, she added.. LIZ HUNT

Health Editor
A wide variation in heart attack survival rates for Scottish hospitals is revealed by Government figures released yesterday.Although Robert Kendell, Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer, yesterday urged the public not to compare hospitals on the basis of figures, doctors are expected to study them closely.They show, for instance, that the Monklands and Bellshill NHS Trust Hospitals, in Lanarkshire, had the highest proportion of deaths within 30 days of admission for heart attacks. “Unless this government is prepared to recognise the problem and allocate a larger proportion of NHS resources to cancer care, Britain will continue to have the poorest survival rates in the world,” he said.A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said that the crisis in Bristol was a local matter for the trust and health authority to resolve. Dying patients in need of palliative care are suffering as a result.Professor Coombes backed Dr Varley’s demand for immediate extra funding. More of the cancer budget is being consumed by chemotherapy treatments which have improved survival rates in recent years, the professor said.This leaves less money for radiotherapy but more patients who actually need curative radiotherapy following successful adjuvant drug treatment. “It varies from centre to centre; it is a few days here but much longer in other centres,” he said.Overall, there are now more cancer patients largely because of an ageing population. Extra-funding from Avon District Health Authority of pounds 400,000 had failed to resolve the problem.

“We’ve treated 10 per cent more outpatients than we were contracted for, provided 40 per cent more chemotherapy and spent pounds 160,000 more on drugs,” she said.Professor Charles Coombes, director of the Cancer Research Campaign’s laboratories at the Hammersmith Trust, west London, said that the Bristol crisis was “very desperate” but that data to support Dr Varley’s claims was hard to come by.However, he said that nationally, a growing proportion of terminally ill patients were being pushed to the back of the radiotherapy queue. Doctors are liaising with GPs to determine which patients will be turned away; they cover a wide range of ages and are likely to be in the final stages of breast, lung, ovarian, prostate, and bowel cancer.A spokeswoman for the trust said that the centre faced a pounds 500,000 overspend to the end of this financial year. This will reduce the number of treatments the centre provides by 40 a week. To achieve the same effect with drugs requires large doses which make the patient drowsy and affect quality of life.” Cancer which has spread from a primary tumour to the bone can be very painful.The crisis in Bristol follows a decision by the United Bristol Healthcare Trust to close one of the five radiotherapy machines at the oncology centre to save money. “A single radiotherapy treatment to a painful bone can bring relief for several months. He gained access to rare collections because of his privileged position as lecturer.At Northampton Crown Court yesterday Heighes agreed to a compensation order.

The court heard he had pounds 198,687 from the sale of his Oxford house and from an inheritance from his grandfather. Judge Francis Allen ordered him to pay pounds 20,895 to Christ Church; pounds 52,940 to Sotheby’s of London; pounds 1,350 to Queen’s College; pounds 5,200 to Trinity College, and pounds 80,245 to Blackwell’s.. LIZ HUNT

Health Editor
Dying patients in urgent need of pain relieving radiotherapy treatment can expect only “second-rate” care from the National Health Service unless the Government commits extra funds to cancer services, a leading specialist warned yesterday.Dr Victor Varley, clinical director at the Bristol Oncology Centre where 20 patients a month are likely to be refused radiotherapy because the hospital has run out of money, said that other centres across the country were also being forced to “prioritise” cancer patients.Those with curative conditions were receiving radiotherapy, while scores of terminally ill patients were being prescribed painkilling drugs instead of palliative radiation treatment, he said.”This is less than the optimum treatment,” Dr Varley said last night. Their claim was supported by the detention of eight Bosnians with documents identifying them as employees of the Bosnian Ministry of the Interior, and by a photograph of President Alija Izetbegovic in the chalet.But stacks of documents in Persian, pictures of Ayatollah Khamenei, the capture of three Iranian nationals and some of the more exotic devices found in the house provided a “terrorist” link for US Nato forces on the scene.”The terrorists obviously didn’t get any classes in the Geneva Conventions, but they did – this picture illustrates – get shown a new and useful way to blow a child’s sneakered foot off,” said one US officer.He held up a notebook with a sketch showing a foot in asneaker stepping on a pressure-activated explosive device.On the table, taken when the house was captured, were several examples of the device illustrated in the notebook.Captured weapons and ammunition ranged from Russian AK-47 assault rifles with standard bullets to silenced sniper rifles, exploding dum-dum bullets, and unmarked cartridges.Roaming the house were men in military uniforms without rank or name tags – presumably members of French, British and US intelligence agencies involved in the raid.The Americans, anxious about Iran and a threat they believe it poses to US citizens and installations in Bosnia and around the world, were triumphant. “Add water to the jar, the beans slowly swell, the device goes off,” explained one Nato officer.Bosnian authorities deny Nato’s charge and say the base was a legitimate espionage school for government agents. Elaborate sketches detailed the building’s defences and escape routes.Cardboard models of houses and residential building complexes seemed training aids for attacks against civilian targets.A glass jar half-full of dried beans had a pressure-activated detonator under its lid. It included dozens of photographs of the location, which has been occupied by French soldiers under the UN, and now Nato, in recent years.