Abstract

KIE: A 1984 report of a British Working Group on Acute Services for Cancer offered guidance to the National Health Service (NHS) on the effective use of resources to achieve maximum benefit for cancer patients. Rees discusses the need to consider the cost effectiveness of these resources. He presents an analysis of the costs of various diagnostic, treatment, and related care modalities in relation to the quality of life achieved, showing that palliative care is considerably more expensive than curative treatment. Rees maintains that these higher costs can be assumed by a compassionate society until they result in an inequitable distribution of resources. He proposes strategies for cost containment based on greater general practitioner and patient involvement, reduction of inpatient care and marginally beneficial follow-up and testing, restriction of the more expensive drugs to curative treatment, and greater use of hospice services.