If your wellbeing has been harmed by cancer, thanks to the government you may face even further wellness risks. This is according to cancer charities, who have warned that thousands of cancer patients face being denied life-extending drugs because of government delays over funding.
The Beating Bowel Cancer group have published findings which show that over 700 bowel cancer sufferers a year in the capital face an uncertain future. As it stands, there is currently a Cancer Drug Fund (CDF) worth £200 million-a-year, which was brought in so that cancer drugs which had not yet been approved by the NHS rationing body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) could still be accessible to patients. However, the Cancer Drug Fund ends next year and, according to the Beating Bowel Cancer group, the government is “dragging its heels” over replacing it.
The cancer charity’s experts estimate that at least 1,200 bowel cancer patients in London have benefited since the fund was launched, gaining access to rare and expensive cancer drugs that turned out to be vital to their wellbeing. However, the Beating Bowel Cancer group is also concerned that, even if the CDF funding is replaced, certain drugs may be dropped from the list of those that are available to patients. And it’s not just this charity that has spoken out against the potential changes. Andrew Wilson, from the Rarer Cancers Foundation, has urged Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt not to return to the “dark days” when cancer patients were regularly denied vital drugs.
According to Mark Flannagan, chief executive for the Beating Bowel Cancer group, ‘Cancer patients living in and around London have been some of the most successful in the country in being able to access vital medicines that would have previously been denied to them due to cost. We cannot allow the drug fund to fold without there being anything to replace it. By dragging its heels and taking too long to make a decision on how drugs will be funded in future, the Government is putting the lives of more than 700 new bowel cancer patients each year in London at risk.’