Labour calls for drug access system revamp as crowdfunding case cited
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has urged the Scottish Government to reform the system for accessing drugs on the NHS to prevent patients from having to crowdfund for their own treatment.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has urged the Scottish Government to reform the system for accessing drugs on the NHS to prevent patients from having to crowdfund for their own treatment.
Ms Dugdale highlighted the case of one breast cancer patient whose friends and family were trying to raise £90,000 to pay for drugs to prolong her life.
The drug Kadcyla is not approved for general use on the NHS and Anne Maclean-Chang's individual patient treatment request (IPTR) for access was rejected.
A review into the way drugs are assessed for use on the NHS is already under way.
Speaking at First Minister's Questions at Holyrood, Ms Dugdale said: "Anne wrote to the First Minister pleading for help because she has had to raise £90,000 from strangers to pay for her cancer treatment.
"In 2016 a woman with breast cancer has to crowdfund her own cancer care. That can't be right."
While Nicola Sturgeon confirmed a decision by Ms Maclean-Chang's health board had now been taken to fund her treatment, Ms Dugdale stressed there were many others in similar positions.
The Government's review, led by Dr Brian Montgomery, will look at how the changes made to the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) process in 2014 have improved patient access to medicines for rare and end-of-life conditions.
It will also look more broadly at how the whole system for getting patients access to newly-licensed drugs safely and quickly is working.
Ms Dugdale said: "Labour recently set out five clear proposals for reforming the system of access to medicines and submitted it to the government's own review.
"The system has to be reformed so that in future cancer patients don't have to hold bake sales to find the money they need for the cancer treatment they need.
"When the government's review is published, can she (Ms Sturgeon) assure the chamber that cases like Anne's will never happen again?"
Ms Sturgeon said any proposals would be considered by Dr Montgomery.
She added: "In the last few years we have seen significant improvements to the system, so for example the changes we have already introduced have seen a 10-fold increase in the numbers of medicines being accessed through the IPTR system.
"I hope everybody would agree that it is absolutely vital that we have these systems in place, because that is how we deliver fairness for patients in an age where new drugs are coming onto the market all the time and it is also how we deliver fairness for taxpayers.
"I cannot, and I will not, give the assurance that no patient will ever again find that they cannot access a drug that they think in all sincerity they should, because in any system that has to assess drugs there will inevitably be hard decisions that are difficult for all of us where drugs are not accessible for a particular patient.
"This is not a case of me and my government intervening. This is a case of the system operating to get a patient the drug that I agree she should be accessing. This is about making sure we have robust systems in place ... which take these decisions fairly."