Cancer drugs ‘are too costly’
Wednesday 2nd March 2011, 2:29PM GMT.
PAYING for cancer drugs which have not been recommended for use on cost grounds could make Guernsey’s health and social services unsustainable, according to the department.
It was commenting following a question asked in the States by Deputy Mike Hadley (pictured) about why some cancer drugs were available to UK NHS patients, but not to people in Guernsey.
Last year the UK Government started a £200m. interim cancer drug fund to pay for some medication which had not been approved for use by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), allowing patients access to drugs they had previously been denied.
But no such fund has been introduced in Guernsey, meaning islanders do not have access to drugs they could be prescribed in the UK.
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With 65,000 people, roughly one thousandth of the population of the UK, a fund of equivalent pro-rater value here would need to be £200,000.
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Unless the wealthy are to pay more tax we’re going to end up in a mess. People on average earnings are struggling and the island’s services cannot cope with modern day demands.
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@ Public Servant – The more you earn the more you pay is how it works at the moment.
Don’t you think you should pay a bit more too? Work hard, earn more, pay more – win win. Or are you expecting others to pay your share?
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From experience I do not agree with the general thrust of this article which implies that cancer treatments in Guernsey are inferior to those in the UK.
For several years now Guernsey has not only had access to most of the same treatments as are available in the UK, but it has also been a leader in the provision of cancer drugs which had not even got past the trial stage in the UK.
My wife received state of the art chemotherapy and cancer drug treatments a couple of years ago which, (while available in the USA) were not yet available to UK patients.
The Island has, up until now, had good funding for cancer treatments.
As anyone who has been affected by cancer (whether directly or indirectly) knows – there are some things you just cannot put a price on.
I fully understand that Guernsey needs to save money but I tell you this – anyone advocating making cuts to this part of the Island health budget would soon change their tune if, God forbid, they got diagnosed with this hateful disease.
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Hello, you said
“Don’t you think you should pay a bit more too? Work hard, earn more, pay more – win win. Or are you expecting others to pay your share?”
I say
We all pay the same percentage in terms of income tax and so for you to suggest that I expect someone to pay my share is insulting and utterly ignorant of you as is the suggestion that I don’t work hard.
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Furthermore Hello, my original comment was an assertion that taxes need to increase to support more increasing demands on services, particularly health and social services and only the wealthy have the spare capacity to take up the slack, seeing as they are taxed so lightly. I did not ask for your opinion on my work ethos and I don’t want it.
An alternative of course is to share all public service and governmental costs with Jersey and effectively create a Channel Island government. Include the Isle of Man as well.
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@ Public Servant – You are taxed lightly compared to the European norm. Surely we could have awesome public services here if we paid the same rates of Social Security contributions as they do in the UK? – this would bring in far more money than taxing the rich an extra 5 or 10%.
If you’re really concerned about services you should be campaigning for real increases in revenue should you not?
But you seem to have decided that you personally should not be asked for more. £10 a week of everyone is not much but would bring in circa twenty million.
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Hello – £10a week is not alot??? My partner and I both work hard, in what I would consider to be decent enough jobs earning pretty decent money – I work 2 jobs in fact, and paying the mortgage, the increasing food bills, gas, water, electric, petrol is not easy never mind the trying to save to get married and the “how are we going to afford to start a family” so, no, you are wrong to presume that £10 a week is not much – iv got a better idea – lets give £20 a week less benefit out (from workers taxes and Soc Sec contributions) and put that saving into this pot to raise circa £20 million instead???
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£40 a month Hello. I can’t afford that, maybe you can.
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Public Servant
If you can convince Rob Gray at Income Tax that you need the pills to keep you healthy enough to work and pay taxes … it might be tax deductible
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@ Public Servant – OK, so how about I pay, shall we say, £60 and you pay £20?
This is how the current system works.
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i strongly believe you have to ‘ration’ drugs in wealthy communities. remember – the people making vast profits in this are the huge pharmaceutical manufacturers and the pharmaceutical suppliers. am i wrong or wasn’t dep hadley a pharmaceutical supplier? you cannot give everyone every possible drug forever, especially when the benefit is minimal. it will bankcrupt most societies. NICE and our own health advisers must gate-keep for the greater public interest. not a popular job and a lot harder than dep hadley’s populist, emotive drum-beating. if he really wants to improve health, across the board, he might find the standards in his old UK a better target, or how about helping vaccination schemes in africa, if he is not already doing that?
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Hello, you seem to have that typical cavalier attitude towards money as you are well off, by your own implication. You don’t have a clue about the rest of society. I know wealthy people who judge everyone’s expenditure by their own standards. They think because they can afford to buy organic food then everyone can. Is it selfish, is it naive, probably both.
I’m glad to hear you contribute more than me though. However as you pay more tax you should lobby to pay only a 10% rate so that we pay the same regardless of income. Does that sound fairer? That way the cleaner pays exactly the same as you and you are not subsidising his/her cancer treatment.
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Oh no – I earn more so I pay more as per the current system. I’m happy with that, It’s fair. I’m not sure where I have suggested otherwise?
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“Guernsey….has also been a leader in the provision of cancer drugs which had not even got past the trial stage in the UK”
This quotation from CD’s posting on 2 March cannot be true, surely? I wouldn’t want the Guernsey health service to be providing untested drugs.
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