The Net Zero zealots are coming for your medicine (Image: Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
When the drive for net-zero means endangering the lives of patients, we know for sure that lunatics are firmly in charge of the asylum. Nearly one in ten people in this country, me included, have asthma. If you’re not one of them, you’ll know someone who is.
And you’ll be aware that the blue inhaler can quite literally save lives, stopping an asthma attack in its tracks. About a thousand asthmatics each year in the UK die from an attack, but it’d be an awful lot more without the sixty million blue inhalers prescribed by doctors.
Yet, incredibly, that’s not enough for the fanatics. It’s not enough to stop asthmatics dying. So, get this, doctors are being told not to prescribe blue inhalers because they damage the planet. Worse, they are being encouraged to hand out leaflets to asthmatics telling them that the inhaler their life depends on can have “a greenhouse gas effect”.
Oh my goodness. We really have stooped this low. We’ve hit rock-bottom. Yes, vulnerable asthmatics are going to be guilt-tripped by their own doctors into changing their medicine.
As it happens, I decided some years ago, following medical advice, to stop using a blue inhaler and to use a “combination inhaler” instead. This not only relieves the symptoms but also contains a longer-lasting prevention mechanism. For some asthmatics, but not all, that’s a good policy.
But each time a doctor recommends such a change to my inhaler, I am filled with anxiety. I worry that the new one won’t work as well, or that I’ll use it incorrectly when I need it most, or that I won’t know how many doses are left because inhalers have different dose-numbering mechanisms. My latest one doesn’t have a numbering mechanism at all, so I worry that I’ll be out and about unaware that my inhaler is actually empty.
Having a life-threatening vulnerability is bad enough, without adding more layers of anxiety. But the key is this: my doctor and I made that decision with nothing but healthcare in mind. And that has always been my assumption when I’ve consulted the medical profession about anything. I’ve assumed that the only consideration is health.
But after today’s announcement, I can no longer be sure. And nor can you, regardless of whether you suffer from asthma. Because as of today, doctors will be making prescription decisions not just on what’s right for the patient’s health, but what satisfies society’s net-zero fetish.
The NHS will try to explain that we must reduce a patient’s over-reliance on blue inhalers, and that it’s vital we treat the underlying condition rather than just relieving the symptoms. They’ll say that on this occasion there is a happy coincidence between what’s good for the environment and what’s good for the patient.
Well, I’m sorry but that’s balderdash. When it comes to treating life-threatening conditions, any tiny greenhouse gas effect must be utterly irrelevant. All that matters is the health of the patient. That must be the sole consideration.
I wonder how Britain’s eight million asthmatics will be feeling today. They know that they can never leave home without their inhaler. To forget can quite literally be fatal. Until now, they’ve trusted their doctors to prescribe what’s right for them and for the management of their condition.
But now, at the very least, they will be more anxious. Many will be more suspicious and less trusting. Some will fear they’re being sacrificed on the altar of net zero. What an incredibly sad day.