MP demands cancer drug fairness

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies said he is frustrated by differences in access to cancer drugs in England and Wales.

On Monday this week, the Rarer Cancers Foundation said that patients in Wales are four times less likely to receive new cancer drugs on the NHS than people in England. In England the UK Government has set aside £200 million in a Cancer Drugs Fund, which has allowed newer drugs which are not yet formally licensed by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to be prescribed.

No such fund exists in Wales and Mr Davies (pictured), himself a recovered cancer patient, said: “Montgomeryshire is on the front line of the debate about access to cancer drugs. Most of our cancer patients are in the care of England-based oncologists, who are deeply frustrated when they cannot prescribe a drug that they could if the patient was from England. I can think of nothing that makes me angrier, or the people of Montgomeryshire more disillusioned with the Welsh Assembly and devolution, than this cross-border differential cancer treatment.

“I know from personal experience how traumatic a diagnosis of cancer can be. The trauma must be multiplied when recommended drugs are refused by the Welsh NHS, while patients in the same position a few miles away in England can have the drug on the English NHS. I know of examples close to home where this has been the cruel experience of Welsh cancer sufferers.

“I accept that devolution means there will be differences across Offa's Dyke. We know that prescriptions are enjoyed free of charge in Wales, but not in England. We know that waiting times are longer in Wales than in England for treatment at the same hospitals. But I do think that because access to cancer drugs is such a sensitive issue, impacting on people at just about the most traumatic times in their lives, the Governments in Westminster and Cardiff should work towards a common cancer drugs access system. And it should happen with urgency.”