ABSTRACT

Sir Thomas Bingham MR stated in R v Cambridge Health Authority, ex parte B [1995] 1 WLR 898:

‘I have no doubt that in a perfect world any treatment which a patient … 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.’