Hi - I’m Kajal, the new Campaigns Officer at Macmillan. I’ll be posting on here from time to time about the latest on our campaigns.
Today I wanted to fill you in on the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). Launched in October 2010 following Macmillan’s Vote Cancer Support campaign, the fund was created to improve access to cancer drugs that aren’t routinely available on the NHS, i.e. drugs that haven’t been approved for funding, are yet to be approved for funding or that aren’t approved for a specific type of cancer. It is really important that these drugs are accessible to those that need them.
Following criticism over the under spend of the CDF, last week saw the Minister for Care Services, Paul Burstow, assure that despite under spend there are no plans to reduce the Fund’s resource allocation of £200m for each of its three years.
This is good news but more must be done to make sure the Fund is as effective as possible; after assessing the impact so far, we found that in some parts of England the Fund was not being accessed because people didn’t know it existed or how it could help them. It is essential that the CDF is better monitored so that people affected by cancer know that it is there and can access it, no matter where they live. A postcode lottery is not good enough. Read our report.
The Fund will come to an end in 2014, when it will be replaced by value-based pricing. Macmillan is working with DH to make sure that the recommendations in our report are implemented and we will continue to campaign for all the drugs available through the Fund in England to be automatically available on this new system.
Read more about the Cancer Drugs Fund in England.
For more information on access to treatments in Scotland, Wales and NI, please see our Getting Treatment page.
