Commissioning Cancer Drugs and Services

Commissioning cancer drugs and services: Looking to the future

12th March 2007, Royal Institute of British Architects, London 

To say that the imposing façade of RIBA headquarters instilled in arriving delegates a sense of trepidation would be pure conjecture; that the conference to which they were arriving would ask more questions than it answered, however, must have been forecast by all 200 who attended.

Convened by the London Cancer New Drugs Group (LCNDG) to discuss the commissioning of cancer drugs and services, the aims of the conference were three-fold:

• To explore how cancer drugs and supportive care could be effectively commissioned alongside cancer services and within the context of the wider commissioning agenda
• To discuss environmental changes that might alter the role of health technology assessment
• To facilitate an understanding of the work of the LCNDG and other health technology appraisal (HTA) bodies amongst stakeholders, including commissioners and the pharmaceutical industry
• Important to note is that delegate participation was integral to the day’s programme and that, although individual speakers are attributed to each of the main topics covered, much of the content of this report originates from contributions from the floor and discussion panel members. Four workshops were also included on the programme, the aims of which were to explore:
• Current and possible future models of commissioning and their strengths and weaknesses
• The financial flows for cancer services and the implications of Payment by Results
• The role of cancer networks in commissioning and the strengths and weaknesses of potential network models to facilitate effective commissioning
• The role of HTA bodies in the assessment of cancer drugs and supportive care and their relationship with commissioners

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