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Lord Saatchi’s Medical Innovation Bill has passed its first hurdle through the House of Lords and will now be given a second reading.

If passed, the controversial Bill potentially would enable doctors to try new, untried or “innovative” therapies on patients who are not responding to licensed treatments.

The Bill seeks to differentiate between responsible innovation and reckless experimentation, however – but would protect doctors from prosecution or medical negligence claims if new therapies are tried on patients as a last resort.

Lord Saatchi developed the Bill after his wife – the writer Josephine Hart – died from ovarian cancer.

Lord Saatchi claims that every year 15,000 cancer patients die as a result of their treatment rather than the disease itself.

He says that medical experts have told him that around one in 10 cancer patients dies as a result of cancer therapies rather than the disease – often as a result of developing infections after cancer treatments have lowered their immune systems.

The Telegraph reports that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has approved the Bill “in principle”. However, some medical experts have called the Bill “a quack’s charter”.

Currently, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (HMRA) regulates medical treatments and drugs in the UK.

NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) sets standards for healthcare and issues guidelines on the use of pharmaceutical drugs and therapies.

Drugs used “innovatively” or off licence can prove successful in some patients who have stopped responding to conventional treatments, however.

Advertising mogul Lord Saatchi says that he has responded to criticisms that his Bill is a “quack’s charter”, to allow doctors to be exempt from prosecution provided it can be shown that they acted in the best interests of the patient in trying an “innovative” therapy.

Doctors who try experimental therapies on patients who are not responding to conventional treatments can be prosecuted, unless they pass the Bolam Test and have the support of other specialists.

Lord Saatchi’s Bill proposes that doctors would be exempt from prosecution, but the decision to try an innovative therapy on a patient would be taken by a panel of medical experts beforehand.

NHS Medical Director Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is to advise the Health Secretary on how the Bill would work in practice.

An online petition in support of the Bill has so far collected 18,000 signatures from medical staff and the general public.

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Medical negligence claimants usually have three years from the date of injury in which to claim – and children have three years from the age of 18 in which to make a compensation claim.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/saatchi-bill/10878749/Lord-Saatchis-Medical-Innovation-Bill-passes-first-hurdle.html