Stop the Saatchi Bill

Driven by an extraordinary two-year PR campaign on social media and a supportive newspaper partner, this all started as Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill, metamorphosed through several versions, and was resurrected under a new name by Chris Heaton-Harris, before finally clearing its last hurdle in the Lords this week to become the Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Act. Pretty much the only thing they share is the word 'Innovation' in the title.

One day, it may be possible for politicians to ask the people who actually work in the medical field: what are the problems you face, and how can we help you overcome them?

One day, politicians may actually listen to the answers they receive, and thus try to tackle genuine problems rather than imagined ones.

One day, politicians, medics, researchers, lawyers, patient groups, charities, and the public, may work together to overcome the barriers to the development and provision of new treatments.

But it is not this day.

Read more: Not this day

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Two for the Price of One

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What could be better than the Saatchi Bill? Two Saatchi Bills, if Lord Saatchi is to be believed. But we’ll all pay a high price for this Buy-One-Get-One-Free offer. On 18th June 2015, an extraordinary letter was published in the Independent, opposing Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill, which has been resurrected and returned to the House of Lords after being…

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When the facts change….

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Re-blogged with permission from When the facts change…. by Nigel Poole QC Lord Saatchi may be seeking to re-introduce his Medical Innovation Bill unchanged, but the common law he blames for preventing a cure for cancer, has moved on. In January 2015 the House of Lords sent the Medical Innovation Bill to the Commons. The Bill sought to provide doctors with…

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Saatchi’s Bill could harm thousands

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The Medical Innovation Bill, which would leave patients unprotected in the face of reckless medical experimentation, is before Parliament once more. The prospect should worry all of us [The Lib Dems] have killed the Medical Innovation Bill. It is dead. By killing the Bill they have killed the hopes of thousands of cancer patients. It is as simple as that.…

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