Cancer charity warns of drug access ‘inequality’

Concern has been raised overthe availability of treatments in some areas. Picture: comp

Beating Bowel Cancer has complained there is an “’enormous inequality” in the system for prescribing new medicines, claiming that many patients suffering from the disease in Scotland are “simply unable to access treatment because of where they live”.

It hit out in a submission to MSPs on Holyrood’s Health Committee, who are examining the controversial issue of access to new drugs.

Professor Angela Timoney, chair of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) - the body which approves new medicines for use in the NHS in Scotland - will appear before the committee, along with oncologists, cancer charities and others.

An independent review of the system recently recommended the SMC should meet in public so that patients and drugs companies could see how it works.

But Beating Bowel Cancer said while measures recommended in the review could improve transparency and accountability, it added: “It remains to be seen whether those improvements will translate into fairer drug access for patients.

Frustration

“Our concern is that the review recommendations will merely serve to provide patients the opportunity to clearly ‘see inside’ a system that still does not meet their needs and which continues to be a source of frustration because the drugs that they need remain out of reach in Scotland.”

The charity said that for patients across Scotland, “securing fair access to drugs can be a lengthy, confusing and frustrating experience”.

In its submission to MSPs, it stated: “We know that the first question that comes to bowel cancer patients’ minds after diagnosis is not ‘will I survive?’ Instead they ask ‘what are my options?’

“Unfortunately, those options differ depending on which side of the border they live, with patients in Scotland three times less likely to gain access to a cancer drug, which is not routinely funded, than people in England.”

It said this could result in patients having to pay “extremely high treatment costs” to get the drugs, moving to another part of the country where treatments are available or simply going without.

Treatment

The charity said: “The system retains enormous inequality because bowel cancer patients in Scotland are in many cases simply unable to access treatment because of where they live.”

Last week, it emerged that bowel cancer sufferer Maureen Fleming, 63, is considering moving to England after being refused the drug cetuximab in Scotland.

Her consultants say the grandmother-of-10, from Bonhill, West Dunbartonshire, may get the life-prolonging treatment on the NHS south of the border.

Labour leader Johann Lamont raised Mrs Fleming’s plight with First Minister Alex Salmond, describing her as a “health refugee”.

In its submission, the SMC said it believed the concerns of cancer specialists and patients had “largely” resulted from the decision to set up a cancer drugs fund in England.

It accepted this was “challenging for patients” but added the ability to make different decisions was a consequence of having a devolved Scottish Parliament.

The SMC also told MSPs that most of the recommendations from the New Medicines Review were “likely to result in only marginal change to the decisions reached”.

Transparent

It added: “It is expected that by enhancing processes to engage patients, the public and the pharmaceutical industry there will be better stakeholder engagement and buy-in to the decisions. It is not a given that this will be achieved.”

The organisation also cautioned that implementing such measures would “require major changes to the current ways of working” and said there may be unintended consequences.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Scotland has one of the fastest and most efficient medicine review processes anywhere in the world, however we can’t overlook the concerns raised by clinicians, charities and patients about access to medicines.

“That is why we commissioned an independent review, which provides some key recommendations on how to improve access arrangements for new medicines in Scotland to make them better than ever before.

“Many of the recommendations focus around making sure the system is as open and transparent as possible and to improve information for patients and the public about how decisions are taken on which medicines to prescribe.

“We will consult on these together with the recommendations from the Health and Sport Committee as we want everyone to have their say on how we make sure that the Scotland has the best system possible.”