NHS Drug Funding: The future
Here we consider what options are available for the future of funding new drug treatments within the NHS.
Cancer concern
Health professionals have expressed increasing concern at the ability of the NHS to fund new and increasingly costly drug treatments.
A BBC poll conducted in May 2007 showed that 180 cancer doctors were 'worried' or 'very worried' about the future of cancer drug funding.
With 500 drugs currently part of UK clinical trials, and international drug research becoming ever stronger the problem is set to come to a head in the near future.
Self-Funding
With a wealth of new treatments on the horizon, and NHS funding limitations, paying for treatment privately is expected to escalate.
There are fears that this could establish a two tier system in the NHS where only those who can pay for drugs privately will benefit. There is also concern that patients will turn to the internet for more information, and potentially more affordable medicines on sites that are not regulated.
Stephen Hallworth is a spokesman for the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency:
The pharmaceutical industry is unable to advertise on the internet. ABPI's Richard Ley says this law is frustrating:
Co-payment
An area of great debate is the use of co-payment in order to fund future treatment options.
Co-payment is where treatment cost is shared between the patient and the NHS.
In France, this system has led to the creation of a specific fund for cancer drug treatments. Advocates, such as Professor Karol Sikora, think the system is already present here and needs to be given greater consideration.
Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson MP is not convinced: "Karol has got an agenda, he wants to privatize medicine.... he thinks of the desperate situation we are bound to get into without enough money. I certainly don't think that, I think a better use of money for drugs could be part of the future and (more) personalized medicine is one way forward."
Conservative MP John Baron also shies away from the option of co-payment: "There has been an enormous increase in money going into the NHS and we believe that things like reducing the number of targets and the bureaucracy that feeds off those targets would allow more money to reach front-line services, including the take up of new drugs entering the market."
Joyce Dunlop thinks it is inevitable that the NHS funding system will have to change:
Professor Nick Bosanquet warns that the availability of drug treatments will not always provide a solution to treating conditions: