Sky News 07-Sep-08
From Kidney Cancer Resource
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NHS 'Faces Meltdown' Over Cancer
Thomas Moore, Health correspondent
One of the country's top doctors has warned the NHS faces meltdown because of the cost of treating cancer.
Professor Karol Sikora, of CancerPartners UK, told Sky News the next generation of drugs will turn cancer into a chronic disease that patients live with, not die of.
But the drugs are not just expensive - they will give way to a raft of new diseases people will suffer in old age.
The total cost to the NHS will be £50bn in four years' time - half the current budget for the entire health service.
"The £50bn is equivalent to raising tax by 15p for everybody. That's the bottom line," Prof Sikora said.
"The calculations I've done for Sky News show a pretty bleak picture unless we have drastic change.
"The NHS is going to face meltdown just because of one disease, so we're going to have to re-structure things for the future, look at new ways of bringing money in to the health service and that is a huge political challenge." There could also be further rationing of cancer drugs. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence already blocks those that it does not deem to be cost effective.
It can take two to three years to consider the evidence. And in the meantime it is up to local primary care trusts to decide whether or not they will find treatment.
Stephen Allen twice moved house to win funding for a new kidney cancer drug called Sutent. The drug costs £3,000 and PCTs in Dudley and Worcestershire said it was too expensive to justify the extra months of life that he might get.
Only when he moved to Birmingham did he finally get funding. Just 17 miles made all the difference in the postcode lottery. "They said they did good palliative treatment. It was just devastating," he said.
The treatment has allowed him to see his granddaughter's first birthday.
"At times I pinch myself when she's chatting to me. It's been well worth the fight."
Stephen's consultant helps patients to work the system and get the drugs they need.
Professor Nick James is based at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital. He says he has to look up a patient's address to see which drugs they are automatically eligible for.
He now helps patients who have been denied expensive new treatment to top up their NHS care with drugs paid for privately. Officially that is a breach of Department of Health rules. But he says they shouldn't have been turned down for treatment in the first place.
"It feels unfair to me. It feels unfair to the patients. They feel it's a national health service so it should be nationally consistent," he said.
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