Campaigners warn Brits will die waiting for medicine as NHS cost-cutting is set to hit a fifth of new treatments
Patients with asthma, diabetes and even cancer could be forced to wait longer for treatment as NHS execs are given power to block medicines to save money
BRITS are set to face longer delays in receiving medication as a fifth of new drugs face rationing under tighter NHS cost-cutting plans.
Sufferers of cancer, diabetes and asthma could be forced to wait in line for treatment as health chiefs are handed powers to restrict access to medicines to save money, even if they have been ruled cost-effective by doctors.
Drug companies have warned that they will stop launching drugs early in the UK if bureaucrats are given power to stop them from reaching patients purely for financial reasons.
And campaigners have said Brits will die waiting for medicines and the country will be left behind in Europe when it comes to offering cutting-edge therapies.
At present patients have a legal right to be treated with drugs that have been ruled good value for money by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
Medicines that cost less than £30,000 for a year of good quality life are usually approved.
Plans were revealed in the autumn to impose extra affordability tests on all medicines in an attempt to control NHS budgets.
And from April, the NHS will be able to delay making drugs available if the total cost to the health service is more than £20 million – even if Nice approves them.
Phillip Anderson, of Prostate Cancer UK, demanded the scrapping of “catastrophic” changes that he said would mean patients dying while they waited for treatment to be made available.
He told The Times: “A budget impact threshold has the potential to throw the brakes on the most effective new treatments and technologies just before they get to patients.
“It is unacceptable to put in place an open-ended ‘blank-cheque’ for NHS England to request a very lengthy delay.”
Baroness Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, added that the move would be devastating to cancer patients who were relying on new drugs to stay alive.
She said: “We are hugely concerned that the £20million budget impact threshold would be a massive setback for access to new cancer drugs in England.
“With one in five new drugs set to be delayed by the proposed cap, we fear this country really could be left behind in access to the newest and best treatments.”
Patients can arrange to pay privately for drugs not available on the NHS, but they must also meet staff costs and are told to go elsewhere to be treated.
related stories
NHS England says that the fifth of drugs caught by the new measure cost about £400 million a year compared with £125 million for new drugs below the threshold.
Despite an existing £11 billion cap on the total NHS drugs bill, it argues that limiting who can receive new drugs will avoid the need to cut other services to pay for them.
Last week, Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, publicly accused Theresa May of “stretching” the truth about the NHS funding.
Last year the health service imposed caps on how many patients could be given transformative new drugs that can cure Hepatitis C to keep the annual cost to £200 million.
NHS England declined to comment.