[Shasown]

Cancer sufferers in the UK are still failing to get drugs widely available elsewhere in Europe despite Government efforts to speed up approvals, the Tories have said.

No treatment had been given full watchdog approval since proposals to speed up the process were unveiled in November 2008, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said.

And schemes allowing patients to share the cost of expensive drugs while under NHS care were not being considered by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice) in almost half of cases.

Nice defended its record and said it would be "misleading" to patients and a waste of taxpayers' money to recommend the widespread use of drugs for patients who may not benefit.

But in a bid to move the pre-election skirmishing on to the battleground of health, Tory leader David Cameron will meet kidney cancer campaigners to discuss their concerns.

One drug for that condition - Sorafenib - had been refused approval by Nice but was widely used elsewhere in Europe, the party complained in a dossier of decisions.

Former health secretary Alan Johnson agreed in 2008 that patients would be allowed to pay privately for medicines while still receiving NHS care following a number of vocal protests. He also pledged to speed up the process of approving new drugs for use on the NHS with the aim of minimising the numbers forced to pay for treatment.

Mr Lansley said figures showed cost-sharing "patient access schemes" had not been considered in 40% of cases, a quarter of drugs had not been approved and others restricted. He said in 19 out of 21 cases, patients were less likely to be allowed access to a drug than in other European countries and were half as likely or less to be given the drug.

Nice chief executive Sir Andrew Dillon hit back, pointing out that the watchdog recommended the use of 85% of the new drugs it looked at and was prioritising those that potentially extended life.

He went on: "Not all patients with a particular condition benefit from a drug and some drugs only work really well for some patients or at a particular stage in a disease. It's wrong to recommend the use of treatments where the additional benefit is uncertain. This is misleading for patients and wastes scarce NHS resources."


http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20100403...d-6323e80.html

So much for caring for their voters.