Cancer sufferers hit by postcode lottery

Cancer sufferers in Wolverhampton have less chance of securing life-saving drugs than patients in Walsall due to an "astonishing" postcode lottery, figures have revealed.

More than a quarter of patients in the city with rare forms of the disease have been denied funding for specialist treatments not normally available on the NHS. Figures for the past two years show 67 sufferers in Wolverhampton asked the primary care trust for funding and 18 were turned down, compared to just two out of 68 applications in Walsall.

The postcode lottery has seen some PCTs turn down around half of requests from cancer patients as is the case in Dudley, where 36 per cent of the town's 74 pleas were blocked in the last two years.

At South Staffordshire PCT, which was created less than two years ago and only has figures available for the last year, 43 applications were made and 20 per cent were refused.

In Sandwell, of the 35 requests made over the last two years, nine were turned down. At Worcestershire PCT 33 per cent of the 78 requests were turned down in the last two years.

The latest figures reveal on average 16 people die of the disease every week in the UK after they are denied access to drugs that could prolong their lives.

Health campaigner Brian Griffiths, the former chairman of the old Patient and Public Involvement forum (PPI) in Wolverhampton, said: "I think this is astonishing.

"We already know that people get different health care up in Scotland and this shows that something has to happen."

Ethel Powell, founder of Cannock Hospital's League of Friends, said: "I have lost two sisters to cancer, although they did not have those drugs back then, and I think the Government needs to fund them."

Heath bosses say the figures are so varied because each request for funding is considered on an individual basis, and many drugs are not recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which offers guidance on what is likely to work.