To allow top-up payments within the National Health Service would mark the end of the NHS model of providing equal access to all, almost nine out of 10 adults in the UK believe.

A government review is under way to determine whether patients should be allowed to pay extra for cancer drugs that the NHS does not provide without losing the right to other NHS treatment for their condition. But in a poll conducted for the Financial Times by HarrisInteractive, 86 per cent say top-up payments would mark the end of the NHS model.