Cancer: Drugs
Health
John Baron (Basildon and Billericay, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many applications there have been to the Cancer Drugs Fund to date; and how many such applications were (a) approved or (b) declined by (i) age, (ii) gender, (iii) ethnicity and (iv) deprivation.
Chris Skidmore (Kingswood, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cancer patients in (a) England and (b) each strategic health authority region have accessed drugs through the Cancer Drug Fund since its inception; and what the total cost to the NHS was in each region.
Paul Burstow (Minister of State (Care Services), Health; Sutton and Cheam, Liberal Democrat)
The Department does not collect information on the number of applications made to the Cancer Drugs Fund.
Information on the number of patients who have received cancer drugs and spend by strategic health authority (SHA) under the interim cancer drugs funding arrangements in 2010-11 (from October 2010 to the end of March 2011) and under the Cancer Drugs Fund (from April 2011 to the end of February 2012) is shown in the following table. Final figures for 2011-12, based on the final accounts, are expected to be available by the end of June.
| Strategic health authority | Number of patients funded 2010-11(1) | Amount spent 2010-11(2) (£000) | Number of patients funded from April 2011 to end February 2012 | Total number of patients funded since October 2010(1) | Amount spent in 2011-12 (to end February) (£000) |
| North East | 420 | 5,249 | 629 | 1,049 | 4,743 |
| North West | 266 | 7,400 | 929 | 1,195 | 8,034 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 178 | 1,400 | 738 | 916 | 2,840 |
| East Midlands | 178 | 3,157 | 799 | 977 | 3,649 |
| West Midlands | 292 | 2,400 | 1,508 | 1,800 | 11,973 |
| East of England | 246 | 4,286 | 1,169 | 1,415 | 8,967 |
| London | 443 | 5,915 | 1,209 | 1,652 | 19,020 |
| South East Coast | 306 | 2,159 | 1,036 | 1,342 | 9,455 |
| South Central | 290 | 3,200 | 714 | 1,004 | 1,919 |
| South West | 161 | 3,088 | 1,168 | 1,329 | 9,930 |
| Total | 2,780 | 38,254 | 9,899 | 12,679 | 80,529 |
| Notes: 1. Some individual patients may be double-counted where a patient has received more than one drug treatment through the Cancer Drugs Fund. 2. This figure includes end of year spending commitments. Source: Information supplied to the Department of Health by SHAs | |||||