Cheap insurance for cancer drugs causing row

Tue, 24 Apr 2007

An insurance company who are launching a policy that provides insurance for the most modern and expensive cancer drugs at a fraction of their cost is causing controversy. The WPA cancer policy would result in any claiming patients being treated by the NHS, with the cost of drugs underwritten.

A number of new cancer drugs have recently come onto the market, offering cancer patients a better chances of managing their disease and avoiding relapse for longer. The NHS is already struggling to fund the demand, and senior doctors are arguing that co-payment issues need to also be addressed.

A group of doctors called Doctors for Reform are set to argue that the NHS cannot meet the costs of more recent treatments, and co-payment must be addressed. The Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt is expected to resist the campaign. She argues that the newer treatments are affordable, and should be prescribed by doctors.

The head of Cancerbackup, Joanne Rule, reportedly commented: "This dramatises a real problem within the NHS, but it will not help those patients struggling to access treatments right now. The policy will pay for drugs that are unavailable on the NHS, which highlights a gap in the current provision of cancer drugs within the NHS, but this must not set the long-term future for cancer care ."
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