BOPA response to the government’s £50 million Interim Cancer Drug Fund - Part One

Dear Colleagues,

The Lancet described the Government’s announcement in July 2010 of an Interim Cancer Drugs Fund as: ‘The product of political opportunism and intellectual incoherence’, which undermines the evidence-based approach to the allocation of NHS resources operated by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).¹

This is pretty much what it feels like to try to implement this fund using the suggested framework: i.e. clinician-led, with funding allocated according to policies or individual cases as appropriate, and requiring strategic health authorities working together with cancer networks and PCTs to implement the fund fairly, equitably and legally. Not least of the difficulties is the timeframe in which we have to manage this. With the framework for application now in place (since 1 October 2010), we await the reactions from patients and the media alike.

For those of us familiar with the mantra of the National Prescribing Centre (NPC) guidelines on individual funding requests (IFRs)—which drug decision-making bodies have been working closely with for the last 2 years—the introduction of individualcase, non-cohort decisions creates a shift away from the comfort of the NPC recommendation. Thus the spectre of the postcode lottery rises again, with further likelihood of legal challenges if a decision is negative. It may be brave clinicians who agree to serve on the clinician-led panels.

The Cancer Network Pharmacists Forum (CNPF) and British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) position statement in this issue of Cancer Service Forum covers many of the concerns that the announcement of the fund raises. It also makes recommendations to try to resolve these concerns and, in the full statement available on the BOPA website (www.bopaweb.org), provides a valiant attempt at quantifying the costs of the drugs likely to be requested.

I hope that the benefit some patients derive from the introduction of the Interim Cancer Drugs Fund is worth the administrative headache it is going to cause for the NHS.

Libby Hardy

Lead Pharmacist, Peninsular Cancer Network

 

Reference

1. New £50 million cancer fund already intellectually bankrupt (editorial). Lancet 2010; 376: 389.

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