IT has been the sad duty of The Northern Echo in recent months to highlight a series of controversies resulting from restrictions placed on drugs being made available through the National Health Service.

Our on-going campaign over drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease victims is a prime example, and there have been a number of individual cases involving cancer patients.

It is not because we do not recognise the difficulties facing an over-burdened health service, or the financial dilemmas facing primary care trusts.

With finite resources, unenviable decisions have to be taken, and we do not underestimate the enormity of the responsibility placed on those who have to make life or death choices.

We know there are those in management positions within local health services who question the justification for publishing details of such emotive cases.

In our view, the justification is the huge public interest and the need for a debate about how Britain's health needs are to be met now and in the future.

That is what long-serving Darlington GP Dr Ahmet Fuat calls for today and we support him. Dr Fuat, whose mother-in-law is being denied the cancer drug which could prolong her life, has decided he can no longer serve on a health advisory body in protest against NHS drug restrictions.

And when such an experienced and respected doctor feels so strongly, we take it as further evidence that we cannot go on as we are.

The unpalatable truth is that patients are being let down by the NHS. They are being denied life-prolonging drugs which consultants say are needed and which are widely available in other countries.

That is a problem which has to be addressed better than at present.