''The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is taking legal action against what it sees as a charlatan flogging vitamins to people with Aids so that they can avoid taking anti-retroviral treatments which is said to be poisonous. That is what the TAC does, and should do, so well,'' writes Pat Sidley.
Some years ago, several babies in the neo-natal intensive care unit of the Park Lane Clinic died from a bacterial infection. Bacteria had been found in the drip bags attached to the babies, and in the babies' bodies. In light of the recent talk of regulating private hospitals to keep costs in check, there is now a good opportunity to look at a few other issues concerning private hospitals, reckons Pat Sidley.
Radical change is difficult to manage at the best of times -- as anybody working in the civil service over the past 10 years will know. When it means separating people from their money, and tackling vested interests, the fallout can be really messy. So it is with the regulation of medicines.The confusion over the regulation of medicines serves neither consumers nor doctors.