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Crunch time for Jean as courts decide her fate

Ailsa Cranna
3/ 7/2008

LAWYERS acting for cancer sufferer Jean Murphy say they have been served papers which mean the pensioner could be landed with a legal bill from Salford’s Primary Care Trust if she loses her fight at the High Court in London for vital drugs to prolong her life.

Tomorrow, Friday, July 4, Jean travels with her family and her legal team from law firm Linder Myers, to the Royal Courts of Justice to persuade judges to reverse the Primary Care Trust’s decision not to pay for Sutent, a cancer drug which will help her live longer than the 18 months doctors predict.

If Jean’s legal team is unsuccessful costs could come in at around £10,000-plus. If they take the case further as promised, she could spend the last months of her life paying a figure closer to £30,000, according to the law firm.

A spokesperson for the PCT says they have not instructed their legal team to pursue costs, yet Linder Myers say they had received papers from the PCT’s legal team indicating that they would seek costs. Jean’s own costs are covered by legal aid.

A PCT spokesperson said: "The PCT is not instructing its legal representatives to pursue costs against Mrs Murphy."

A spokesperson for Linder Myers said: "If we lost the Judicial Review, Mrs Murphy could be looking at a bill of £10,000 from the PCT. We intend to fight on and this could mean a final bill of around £30,000 for her."

Jean’s legal team are expected to argue the PCT’s commissioning panel failed to apply its own policy when deciding against her application and failed to place sufficient importance on its obligations to Jean under the Human Rights Act.

On Tuesday the 62-year-old grandmother was told by her specialist she had 18 months to live if she wasn’t given Sutent.

If the drug was administered immediately, her life expectancy could be increased by between five and nine months.

The irony of her fight in a week when the NHS celebrates its 60th anniversary is not lost on ailing Jean Murphy, of Cleveland Avenue, on the Fairhope Estate, Hope.

Jean, who has kidney cancer, said: "It would be funny if the consequences for me weren’t so appalling. I can’t believe we have spent all this week hearing Health Secretary Alan Johnson praise the birth of the NHS and promise an end to the postcode drugs lottery and yet I still can’t get a drug that will extend my life.

"I know I am very ill - I was told that this week - but I’m also aware that Sutent could make my life more bearable. As a person who has paid into the National Health Service all my life, is it too much to ask that I get some relief from my pain?

"I think it is disgusting they expect to get paid if I lose. Well, they can take a running jump if they think I’m going to spend what’s left of my life in poverty because of them.

"They ought to be ashamed of themselves - I bet it wouldn’t happen to their own families."

The law firm have instructed Professor Conor Gearty, barrister at Matrix Chambers, professor in law at the London School of Economics and head of the LSE’s Centre for Study on Human Rights.

A spokesman for Linder Myers said: "Proceedings have been instituted at the High Court in London on Jean’s behalf, seeking to challenge the decision of the Salford Primary Care Trust not to fund Sutent and in the interim, for the Trust to at least allow Jean to start treatment with Sutent."

She will be joined in court by husband Michael, 55, who suffers from Crohn’s disease, diabetes, and heart disease as well as her daughter Cathy Ostasz, 36, from Pendleton.

Cathy said: "We are hoping desperately that the decision by Salford PCT will be reversed. We won’t let ourselves think of any alternative."

A spokeswoman for Salford Primary Care Trust added: "Salford PCT’s chief executive Dr Mike Burrows will be attending court in London on behalf of the PCT."