Topping-up

There has been much debate in the media about whether patients should be able to ‘top-up’ their treatment by paying privately for a drug that has not been approved for NHS funding (either locally or by NICE).

The Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson MP, has asked the National Cancer Director for England, Professor Mike Richards, to consider whether and how such arrangements should be made. This review is expected to report in early November.

At Cancer Research UK we consider that there is much that can be done to improve access to cancer treatments, and have outlined these issues in our response to Professor Richards’ review.

Similar investigations have also been launched in Scotland and Wales, and are due to report at the beginning of 2009. The review in Scotland follows an investigation by the Public Petitions Committee which considered several issues related to access to anti-cancer treatments, including co-payments and how drugs are made available in exceptional cases. You can read the Committee’s report here.