Hewitt intervenes in case of terminally ill man

The Department of Health said that giving life-prolonging treatment to every patient who demands it would be a major waste of NHS resources.

A lawyer for health secretary Patricia Hewitt spoke out after the General Medical Council challenged a High Court ruling that supported a terminally-ill man’s wish to be kept alive artificially.

The Department of Health has backed the GMC’s attempt to reverse the High Court ruling which concerns Leslie Burke, a 45-year-old man who suffers from the degenerative brain condition, cerebellar ataxia.

Burke won a landmark case last May giving him the right to stop doctors removing artificial nutrition or hydration treatment until he dies naturally.

The DoH says that if the new rights are established, patients could demand other life-prolonging treatments.

It argues this will create a culture where patients request treatments "no matter how untested, inappropriate or expensive, regardless of doctors’ views".

Speaking on behalf of Hewitt, Philip Sales told appeal judges: "A general right, as identified (in the High Court), for an individual patient to require life-prolonging treatment has very serious implications for the functioning of the NHS.

"It may be interpreted as giving patients the right to demand certain treatments, contrary to the considered judgment of their medical team, that would lead to patients obtaining access to treatment that is not appropriate for them, and to unfairly skewed use of resources within the NHS."

Sales explained that under current GMC guidelines, patients could decide between treatment options offered by a doctor.

But the patient cannot require his doctor to offer him any treatment option which, in the doctor’s view, is not clinically appropriate or which cannot be offered for other reasons - including not having regard to the efficient allocation of resources.

And Sales said the ruling had led to a confusion of the roles of doctor and patient — "decisions over treatment were for doctors, not patients".