Trust Us?
This new section of our website will enable you to check how your Primary Care Trust (PCT) is doing in ensuring that people with rarer cancers receive the treatments they need. Click here to view Taking Exception, the Rarer Cancers Forum report (August 2008) on an audit of PCTs' exceptional cases funding for cancer treatments.
The legal situation
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) appraises a wide range of cancer drugs and makes recommendations in their 'Technology Appraisals'. PCTs are legally obliged to make funding available for the implementation of NICE’s technology appraisals within three months of their publication. If a treatment hasn't been appraised by NICE or the appraisal is not complete, NHS bodies should have local arrangements for the managed introduction of new technologies (such as cancer treatments).
The reality: postcode lottery
In the UK today the postcode lottery exists and there is a tendency for PCTs only to allow drugs that are curative as opposed to those which are life-enhancing. All over the country we hear of situations where patients are denied these treatments, including drugs awaiting approval by NICE as well as those that have been approved by NICE.
Trust Us?
We want to collect information so you can check on your PCT's performance and find out whether you can indeed trust them to give a fair deal to people with rarer cancers. You can help us by emailing us your experiences about your PCT's response to requests for cancer treatments.
Using the system
If you don't know the name of your PCT, go to NHS Choices:
http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/homepage.aspx
At the top left corner of the page, click on GP, then type in your postcode and then click on 'search'. On the next page, find your local GP practice and click on it. In the left margin you'll see a heading 'Performance'. Click on 'How we perform'. The name of your PCT is entered below the centre bar chart.
Then you can click on our list of PCTs and check your local PCT's performance. Each of our PCT pages includes a link to the PCT's section on NHS Choices - this includes useful summary information about the PCT and also has a link that will take you to the PCT's own website.
Click on a Primary Care Trust below for more information.
Ashton, Leigh and Wigan PCT
