Cancer drugs could hurt NHS, many turn to private health insurance

Tue, 15 May 2007

Senior specialists and experts at the core of National Health Service believe that it could be crippled by the greater range of breakthrough cancer treatments currently hitting the market and planned for the near future. Others joined the chorus by saying that private health insurance is the only way to afford the new drugs.

The new drugs, which cost in the thousands, could leave cancer victims having to struggle to finance their own treatment, particularly as ‘co-payment’ has now been ruled out.

The BBC conducted a survey into the new generation of cancer drugs, asking 192 specialist cancer doctors their views. One doctor was quoted as saying: "I can't see any alternative to private health insurance for funding expensive anti-cancer drugs."

A professor of clinical oncology at the University of Birmingham, Nick James, reportedly commented: "The drugs in the pipeline are going to cause even more pressure. I think politicians need to be more honest and say this gap is going to be there and we need to look at ways of filling it."
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