Mesothelioma

It was approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium and doctors here have been prescribing it for about 18 months.

However, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) has since issued a draft recommendation that it should not be given to patients in England other than for clinical trials.

As a result, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS), which oversees the SMC, is reconsidering what should happen in Scotland.

This situation raises important questions over the devolution of health service decisions and clinical guidelines.

Dr David Dunlop, Glasgow's lead clinician for chemotherapy, has described the expected reversal of the Scottish decision as "staggering".

At a purely human level, every patient in Scotland will agree with him, especially when they read of the Orkney farmer, Gordon Norquoy, who was given only months to live, but two-and-a-half years later - as a result of being prescribed Alimta - has been able to visit Australia.

Other forms of chemotherapy had no effect on his advanced Faced with such spectacular improvement in health, it is difficult to disagree with Professor Andrew Watterson and Tommy Gorman, health researchers at Stirling University, that to deny access to such a drug is inhumane, or with Dr Marianne Nicolson of Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, who has no doubt "we must do...

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