Nice move, but still unfair

Every week, science announces another major breakthrough in its search for cures for every life-changing illness, from cancer to diabetes. At every announcement, everyone rejoices - apart from the accountants at the NHS, who know that they are going to have to pay for the resultant drug out of a budget derived wholly from general taxation.

Only last night, scientists in the US announced very positive results from a small-scale trial of a cocktail of drugs. This cocktail appears to help patients with advanced skin cancer, which is a notoriously difficult condition to treat as most sufferers live no longer than 12 months. The 8,000 people who will be diagnosed with malignant melanoma in this country this year will rejoice at the breakthrough - and hope against hope that the drug will be available to them, whatever its cost, should they need it.

Therefore, this morning's news that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) - the body which says which drugs are available on the NHS - has worked out an innovative way in which a new drug will be used on the NHS is very welcome.

The drug is Velocade, which treats bone marrow cancer. It can cost between £25,000 and £107,000, depending on the length of the treatment.

The innovative deal is that the NHS will only pay the manufacturers, Janssen-Cilag, if the drug works. If it fails to benefit a patient, the manufacturers will refund the cost.

This seems eminently fair - after all, if a consumer buys anything in a shop that doesn't work, they are usually entitled to their money back. What is still not fair is that this drug should have been available for almost a year for free on the NHS in Scotland, while people like George King, of Skelton, east Cleveland, have anxiously waited to see whether Nice would force them to move over the border to receive treatment.

Devolution has had many unforeseen consequences, but access to treatment on the NHS should not be dependent upon where you live in the British Isles.