Lord Saatchi: My Bill will set doctors free to innovate and save lives

Since then I have discovered that patients with other cancers and diseases, and degenerative conditions like Duchene Muscular Dystrophy which destroys the lives of young children and kills them in their teens, have also seen remarkably little progress towards finding cures.

Of course, it’s true that some new treatments for certain cancers – especially the big four of lung, prostate, bowel and breast – have been developed. But the fact remains that for the less common cancers, which together account for more than half of all UK cancer deaths, survival rates remain woefully low.

I don’t blame doctors for this, nor do I blame researchers or the cancer charities. I am not railing against evil people or institutions that are somehow intentionally and malevolently seeking to block innovation and the discovery of new medical techniques and lifesaving drugs.

Everyone wants to find new cures for cancers and other killer diseases. The trouble is that there are too many barriers in the way. One is the law which leaves some doctors feeling uncertain about whether they can deviate from so-called “standard procedures”.

Doctors who follow standard medical procedure are protected from being sued, even if their patient dies. Trying something new – deviating from the standard treatment – leaves them open to litigation.

What doctor would risk that when his patient is dying anyway? Taking the well-worn path to failure is far safer.

Of course some doctors do innovate. They risk all for their patients. But it isn’t easy. A culture of conservatism and defensive medicine is growing in the NHS – and it’s having a deleterious effect on the development of ground-breaking treatments.

My Medical Innovation Bill will give doctors a clear path to try new and reasonable treatments. Often it is the patients, especially those who are dying, who want to push the boundaries.

So how will the process work?

A clinician wishing to innovate – to try something new – will be obliged to go to a panel of senior and qualified doctors. This panel will be made up of relevant specialists. They will discuss the case and the doctor will make a full and clear note of the discussion, including any objections or concerns.

The doctor will then show this to the patient and discuss it. If the patient agrees to go ahead, the discussion notes become part of the consent form. If the patient doesn’t agree, he or she will still of course be entitled to continue with the standard treatment.

If the doctor does this, then he or she cannot be sued if the treatment doesn’t work. So, the Bill is for doctors. It protects them when they want to try something new, as long as it’s reasonable and has the support of other doctors.

In this way the Bill rules out quackery – this is not a charter for so-called “alternative medicine”. It is inconceivable that a group of senior NHS oncologists would somehow agree to try nettle juice and hemp oil as a cure for a serious disease.

The Bill, in fact, makes it harder for an individual doctor to act alone, to experiment recklessly on a patient, because he or she will not be covered without the consent and agreement of a panel.

But the real intention of the Bill is to empower patients – patients who may be dying and who want to know that their doctor has tried everything. It will encourage the patient to ask: “Doctor, can you do anything else?” And for the doctor to be confident in saying yes.

Is this Bill necessary? I don’t claim that the law is the only barrier to innovation – far from it. Yet, there is a growing culture of conservatism in some parts of the NHS.

And as one newly-qualified doctor told me: “I recently asked the medical registrar at my hospital what she thought was limiting the NHS in terms of innovation. Her first words were ‘will my ass get sued’? Fear of being sued is the new bogeyman.”

That is why I’m asking you to support my Bill.

The Department of Health is running a public consultation on it now and I urge you to get involved and to make your views known to them.

You can do so today at a public meeting in Leeds at the Department of Health, Quarry Hill, starting at 1.30pm. You must register in advance at tinyurl.com/nzepc8o.

Alternatively you can learn more about the Bill and respond to the consultation at saatchibill.tumblr.com or follow us on Twitter @SaatchiBill.

We are all, or will be, patients. This Bill is for you. It’s for all 
of us.

Maurice Saatchi is an advertising guru and Tory peer.