R (B) V Cambridge Health Authority on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
''R (B) v Cambridge Health Authority''
EWCA_Civ_43is_a_UK_
EWCA_Civ_43is_a_UK_judicial_review_in_English_law">judicial_review
_
Judicial_review_is_a_process_under_which__executive,__legislative_and_administrative_actions_are_subject_to_review_by_the_judiciary._A_court_with_authority_for_judicial_review_may_invalidate_laws,_acts_and_governmental_actions_that_are_incomp_...
_and_UK_enterprise_law.html" ;"title="judicial_review_in_English_law.html" "title="995
EWCA Civ 43is a UK judicial review in English law">judicial review
Judicial review is a process under which executive, legislative and administrative actions are subject to review by the judiciary. A court with authority for judicial review may invalidate laws, acts and governmental actions that are incomp ...
and UK enterprise law">enterprise law case, concerning health care in the UK.
Facts
The parents of a child named Jaymee Bowen claimed that she should receive chemotherapy and a second bone marrow transplant for their 10 year old’s acute myeloid leukaemia. Consultants at
Addenbrooke's Hospital
Addenbrooke's Hospital is an internationally renowned large teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge, England, with strong affiliations to the University of Cambridge. Addenbrooke's Hospital is based on the Cambridge Biomedical Camp ...
, Cambridge, and
Royal Marsden Hospital
The Royal Marsden Hospital (RM) is a specialist cancer treatment hospital in London based in Kensington and Chelsea, next to the Royal Brompton Hospital, in Fulham Road with a second site in Belmont, close to Sutton Hospital, High Down and D ...
in London thought it would not succeed. Treatment in the United States would have been far too expensive. One doctor in Hammersmith would have treated her for £75,000. The doctors believed it would be ineffective and inappropriate.
Judgment
High Court
Laws J
Sir John Grant McKenzie Laws (10 May 1945 – 5 April 2020) was a Lord Justice of Appeal. He served from 1999 to 2016. He was the Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science at the University of Cambridge, and an Honorary Fellow of Robinson Co ...
held the doctors should have to ‘do more than toll the bell of tight resources. They must explain the priorities that have led them to decline to fund the treatment.’
Court of Appeal
Sir Thomas Bingham MR held, the same day, the Health Authority had acted rationally and fairly and intervention would be misguided.
‘I have no doubt that in a perfect world any treatment which a patient, or a patient's family, sought would be provided if doctors were willing to give it, no matter how much it cost, particularly when a life was potentially at stake. It would however, in my view, be shutting one's eyes to the real world if the court were to proceed on the basis that we do live in such a world. It is common knowledge that health authorities of all kinds are constantly pressed to make ends meet. They cannot pay their nurses as much as they would like; they cannot provide all the treatments they would like; they cannot purchase all the extremely expensive medical equipment they would like; they cannot carry out all the research they would like; they cannot build all the hospitals and specialist units they would like. Difficult and agonising judgments have to be made as to how a limited budget is best allocated to the maximum advantage of the maximum number of patients. That is not a judgment which the court can make. In my judgment, it is not something that a health authority such as this Authority can be fairly criticised for not advancing before the court.’
Significance
After the Court of Appeal judgment, the Sun said the child was ‘Condemned by Bank Balance’ and the Daily Mail said the child was ‘Sentenced to Death’. An anonymous private donor paid for treatment. The consultant who had agreed, changed tack, did not provide a second bone marrow transplant, and did an experimental treatment called
donor lymphocyte infusion
Donor lymphocyte (''or leukocyte'') infusion (DLI) or buffy coat infusion is a form of adoptive immunotherapy used after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
History
Formerly, the only treatment option that offered relapsed bone marrow transp ...
. Jaymee died after a few months.
The funeral of Jaymee Bowen was held on 28 May 1996. That evening
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
cancelled its scheduled late-night programmes to enable the celebrated TV discussion ''
After Dark'' to debate the issues of the case, with among others
Julian Tudor Hart
Alan Julian Macbeth Tudor-Hart (9 March 1927 – 1 July 2018), commonly known as Julian Tudor Hart, was a British doctor who worked as a general practitioner (GP) in Wales for 30 years. He was involved with research and wrote many books and s ...
,
Martin Israel and the NHS Director of Public Health who had turned down Jaymee's family when they asked for further treatment.
Production company database
accessed 30 May 2022
See also
* United Kingdom enterprise law
Notes
{{reflist, 2
References
*
United Kingdom enterprise case law