People in England More Likely to Get Cancer Drug-Prescriptions Than Those in Wales

A cancer charity organization has found that people in England were more likely to get cancer drugs prescribed by their doctors than those in Scotland and Wales. Researchers from the Rarer Cancers Foundation (RCF) collected data related to drugs types, approved by the government’s cancer drugs fund, from various health trusts in England by using the Freedom of Information Act. The researchers then compared the data with exceptional-case approvals of the same drugs in Scotland and Wales.

The researchers found that patients in England were three times more likely to get the prescribed drugs than patients in Scotland while those in Wales found it even harder with the patients finding it five times harder than in England to get the drugs.

“A cancer drug does not become any less effective simply because it is prescribed on the other side of a border. Nor does a patient's need become any less pressing. People in Scotland and Wales will want to know why their chances of accessing a life-extending cancer drug are so much lower than their neighbours in England”, RCF’s Andrew Wilson said.



Source-Medindia