Cancer patients feel strain of postcode lottery on drugs

CANCER patients in Gloucestershire are feeling the strain of a nationwide postcode lottery.

Figures show that some patients in the county are being denied certain treatments by Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, while in other areas patients are being accepted.

During the past two years the most popular drugs – Sutent (kidney cancer), Tarceva (lung), Erbitux (colorectal), Nexavar (kidney) and Avastin (bowel) have been given to just eight out of the 16 patients who wanted them.

The Trust is also in the bottom 25 in the UK in terms of the total amount of money spent per patient on cancer treatment.

Every cancer patient receives £6,833 on average – a difference of more than £10,000 compared with top trusts in the UK. The national average spending on cancer patients stands at £8,437 a head.

The low spending has prompted fears from health campaigners that patients in the county are not given the quality of treatment available elsewhere.

A few miles away, in South Gloucestershire, patients can expect even less with the average patient getting £5,902 in services. In Worcestershire, patients do better at £7,671 per head – but still well under the national average.

Health experts say patients in high-spending areas may have a 20 per cent better chance of survival than those where spending is low.

Among the contentious drugs is Sutent, used to treat stomach and kidney cancers, and which was denied to mother-of-three Geraldine Frost before her death last year.

Husband John, 60, from Coleford, said: "Money is being put into research but the Government denies patients the right to be treated. It is costing lives each year."

Penny Wilson-Webb, chief executive of the Rarer Cancers Forum, has called for a change in funding.

She said: "The NHS should be available to all who need it yet, nationally, 1,300 cancer patients were denied treatment that could have made all the difference. In the last 20 months, 5,000 cancer patients have been forced to plead for their lives."

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Primary Care Trust, said: "The Gloucestershire Health Community assesses new drugs and therapies using evaluation from Nice (National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence), the Scottish Medical Consortium and the experience and judgement of local clinicians.

"The PCT is happy to consider applications from any clinicians who feel they have a patient who would benefit from drugs not currently evaluated by Nice or SMC. Decisions on the use of these drugs are taken using the evidence available."