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Thousands of cancer patients will lose out when the Government’s special drugs fund for England is wound up next year, claim campaigners and leading doctors.Access to cancer medicines will revert to being the worst in Europe, with more than 16,000 patients a year denied help, they say.
Cancer charities are calling for the Government to pledge it will not go back to the days when patients ‘had to beg’ for life-prolonging drugs on the NHS.
It comes as a new survey shows four out of five people believe Britons should get cancer drugs widely available in other countries but not here.
Almost three-quarters of people surveyed said the NHS should pay for people to get the drugs they need, including the terminally ill.
The £200million a year Cancer Drugs Fund which began in April 2011 has led to 30,000 patients in England getting drugs banned on the NHS by Nice, the rationing body.
The Government's aim, which was a Tory election pledge, was to enable NHS doctors to prescribe any drug if they believed a cancer patient could benefit.
But it was a temporary stopgap for three years, until the introduction of a new method of assessment for drug pricing in January.
Top cancer charities and specialists say the new system will not cover existing drugs that have become a lifeline for patients.
Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said: ‘The Government gave a pledge that if your doctor thinks that you should have a cancer drug that will help you to live a longer and better life you should get that drug. ‘The Cancer Drugs Fund has given better access to vital medicines and improved outcomes for thousands of patients.
‘With it due to end, we fear that patients’ lives will be put at risk. We simply can’t go backwards to a time when cancer patients had to beg for life-extending treatment.’
A survey of 2,000 adults found 80 per cent said the NHS should offer treatments at least as good as other countries.
Cancer charities are calling for the Government to pledge it will not go back to the days when patients 'had to beg' for life-prolonging drugs on the NHS
The survey was commissioned by drug companies Novartis, Roche and Sanofi.
Annwen Jones, chief executive of Target Ovarian Cancer, said the charity does not directly or indirectly receive funding from any of the companies involved, but called for the future of the fund to be urgently clarified and extended.
Access to cancer medicines will revert to being the worst in Europe, with more than 16,000 patients a year denied help
‘Women with ovarian cancer already have extremely limited treatment options, with no new treatments developed in over 20 years. To lose access to drugs like Avastin, the most significant development in a generation, will be disastrous.’
The survey also showed that cancer is people’s top health concern, with two thirds saying it was the disease they feared most. Dementia was the second most-worrying condition for 16 per cent of people.
Almost two thirds of cancer treatments considered by Nice (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) are rejected.
It is estimated that ending the Cancer Drugs Fund will deny more than 16,000 patients annually from getting potentially life extending drugs.
Dr Rob Glynne-Jones, consultant clinical oncologist and Macmillan lead clinician in gastro-intestinal cancer, at the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre said: ‘Cancer is a complex and devastating disease.
‘In the past patients and the public were anxious they wouldn't have access to treatment, but the Cancer Drugs Fund has made it possible for patients to receive the best possible treatments for their cancer - and I can do the job I trained for. We simply cannot afford to turn the clock back now.
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