'Death sentence' of 1,300 cancer patients denied life-saving drugs because of NHS postcode lottery

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Hundreds of cancer patients are being left to die on the NHS because of a postcode lottery over who gets life-saving drugs.

A study has found that more than 1,300 patients with rare forms of cancer have been refused access to treatments in less than two years because their case was not deemed 'exceptional' enough.

They will be forced to go without the life-saving treatments, unless they can afford to pay privately for the drugs.

But if they do so, they risk having all their other NHS care withdrawn, because the Government outlaws 'co-payments'.

Details obtained by the Rarer Cancers Forum under the Freedom of Information Act revealed that some 5,000 patients were forced to plead with NHS managers to receive high-cost drugs not yet examined by rationing body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Only 26 per cent of them succeed - some 1,314 over the past 20 months - and there is massive geographical variation, with some primary care trusts funding 100 per cent of the cases that come in front of them, and others rejecting 100 per cent.

Although the Government says treatments should not be refused simply because a trust is short of cash, the report indicates that many areas are refusing drugs for financial reasons.

A Department of Health spokesman said the draft NHS Constitution will make it explicit that patients have a right to NICE-approved drugs if clinically appropriate and there are plans to speed up the process for appraising new drugs.