PATIENTS are facing a “postcode lottery” in accessing potentially lifesaving drugs which are not routinely available on the NHS, opposition leaders today warned.
Dozens of leading Scottish cancer consultants launched an attack on the system of individual patient treatment request (IPTRs) last week, warning it is so mired in bureaucracy and restrictive that many don’t even bother to apply.
Holyrood’s health committee today started an inquiry into the system which has been thrown into sharp focus by the emergence of the £600 million cancer drugs fund (CDF) south of the border which means English patients can often get “revolutionary” drugs which aren’t available on the NHS in Scotland.
Patients can use an IPTR to apply for new treatments for diseases such as cancer when they are not routinely available from the health service.
In certain areas up to 85 per cent of requests for often life-extending drugs are accepted, while in other parts of the country it is as low as 50 per cent, according to evidence fro health boards submitted to the committee.
Across Scotland, an average of 65 per cent of IPTRs have been accepted, meaning more than a third are denied the treatment they need. But this figure could be misleading, doctors have claimed, because so many believe the stringent criteria will see their request rejected that they don’t even bother to apply.
The Scottish Conservatives, who have been calling for the creation of a Cancer Drugs Fund in Scotland, today stepped up calls for change.
Tory health spokesman and deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “It is completely unacceptable that someone living in one part of the country is more likely to receive life-extending medicine than those elsewhere.
“It’s a postcode lottery with people’s lives, and something has to be done to ensure a more uniform outcome.
“The SNP’s refusal to create a Cancer Drugs Fund is one of the reasons health boards are having to make these decisions.
“No-one is saying such a fund would answer everyone’s problems, but you only have to look to England to see how successful it can be.
“As it stands one third of people in Scotland are having their individual requests rejected, and that can lead to absolute devastation for both the patient and their family.”