Life is already hard for cancer patients. Don’t make it harder
Alex Hern covers the response from Macmillan cancer support to the government’s welfare reform bill, now in the House of Lords.
cancer
New warnings over UK cancer drug divide
The Rarer Cancer Foundation (RCF) has issued a warning that a “devastating” divide is opening up over access to cancer drugs between England, Scotland and Wales.
PMQs cancer row: MacMillan back Miliband
David Cameron and Ed Miliband clashed over welfare reform and its impact on cancer patients at Prime Minister’s Questions, with MacMillan Cancer Research backing Miliband.
Lansley’s pledge on cancer – more headlines over substance?
Dr Asif Sange believes the practicalities of Andrew Lansley’s pledge to give GPs more access to direct diagnostic tests needs to be examined in further detail.
Decentralisation of NHS cancer services already well underway
There has been apprehension at plans for a revolutionary decentralisation of NHS management, yet for NHS cancer services a similar experiment is well underway.
Not so NICE: Warning of drug industry influence on NHS
No-one likes to talk about rationing health services, especially politicians. Yet rationing decisions are necessary in all health systems without limitless budgets, since demand will always exceed supply. The question is: who makes the decision, and on what basis?
The coalition’s cancer muddle
Previously when a cancer drug was put to NICE for appraisal there was a strong incentive for the drug company to offer a decent NHS-wide price that might be accepted as value for money. Indeed NHS drug prices are generally very competitive.
Localism or a postcode lottery?
The ‘bonfire of quangos’ may or may not lead to centralisation or deregulation depending on circumstance.