Labour leader questions Alex Salmond over ‘postcode lottery’ of cancer drugs

By ANDREW WHITAKER
Published on 06/12/2012 12:44

LABOUR leader Johann Lamont told Alex Salmond that Scots are denied access to potentially life saving cancer drugs during today’s First Minister’s questions at Holyrood.

Ms Lamont said that access to medicines to treat cancer was a “postcode lottery” in Scotland as she called on the First Minister to say what he would do to improve care for those living with the disease.

The call came after cancer specialists told MSPs this week that an inferior health service” for cancer sufferers risks losing Scotland’s world-class status for biomedical research.

However, Mr Salmond insisted that the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), which approves medicines for NHS use, was a “very robust process”.

He went onto rule out backing for a specific cancer drugs fund as he said there was no similar fund for those with “equally” serious conditions.

Ms Lamont had asked the First Minister “why Scots don’t get access to the latest cancer drugs in the NHS.”