The Mid Essex Radiotherapy Case
The Queen on the Application of Coker and Others -v- Mid Essex PCT and Others
A major legal case involving cancer patients in Essex is using the Equality Act to challenge four Essex PCTs over their decision to locate Radiotherapy services at Colchester and Southend leaving thousands of people who live in Mid Essex without local Radiotherapy services.
The Claimants case is being led by solicitor Oliver Wright, an expert in judicial review at Lewis Hymanson Small Solicitors LLP.
The Claimants are asking the PCTs to look again at their decision to site an additional £20 million of radiotherapy services at Colchester and Southend rather than establishing the facility at Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford. The PCTs decision means that thousands of Cancer patients a year have to travel from their local hospital to Colchester to finish their treatment. If patents could access Radiotherapy treatment at Broomfield they would benefit from a 61% reduction in travel time.
The Legal Case
The landmark legal case is based on the Equality Act. The Claimants say that the PCTs failed to properly take into account disabled Cancer patients in Mid Essex when choosing where to build additional Radiotherapy facilities.
Section 149 of the Equality Act says that public authorities, like PCTs, must have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination prohibited under the Act when exercising its functions, such as when deciding where to locate Radiotherapy services.
It is accepted that Cancer patients are disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act.
Section 149 of the Act is read in concert with section 15 (1) (a) which concerns unfavourable treatment of disabled people. Section 15 (1) (a) states that:-
“person (A) discriminates against a disabled person (B) if—
(a) A treats B unfavourably because of something arising in consequence
of B’s disability, and
(b) A cannot show that the treatment is a proportionate means of achieving
a legitimate aim.
Parliament enacted Section 15 (1) (a) to enable an expansive view to be taken in relation to direct discrimination to rectify the restrictive approach taken by the House of Lords in Lewisham LBC v Malcom [2008].
Oliver Wright, said:
"This case is a matter of real importance not just for Cancer patients living in Mid Essex who currently have to endure hours of travel when they are very ill and vulnerable but also nationally because of the enormous significance to thousands of disabled people in England and Wales."
Oliver Wright is a leading public law and human rights expert. He has a particular interest in healthcare cases having acted in a string of high profile patients’ rights cases including the Thomas Condliff case, where a dying grandfather was refused surgery on the NHS. Oliver is now taking this case to the European Court of Human Rights.