Press release

Statement on Cancer Drugs Fund usage

Extra funding this government has provided for cancer drugs has helped almost 18,500 people since October 2010.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Included below is 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 March 2012).

This information is published alongside a bulletin from the National Cancer Action Team, which provides a breakdown of the cancer drugs provided by region.  This will allow people to identify and challenge locally any variations in the” drugs made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund.

 Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said:

Cancer patients, no matter where they live should have access to the drugs their doctors recommend, which is why we introduced the Cancer Drugs Fund.

By publishing this data, patients can see how the Fund is being used in their area and across the country.

We can see that the Cancer Drugs Fund is making a difference to the lives of thousands of people with cancer. The amount of funding we have made available has been more than sufficient to provide clinicians with the freedom to provide the cancer drugs they believe will benefit their patients.

Strategic health authority

Number of patients funded

2010-11

Amount spent  2010-11
£0002

Number of patients funded

2011-12

Amount spent

2011-12

£0002

Number of patients funded

2012-13 to end June 2012

Amount spent 2012-13

to end June 2012

£000

Total number of patients funded Oct 2010 to end June 20121

North East

420

5,249

696

6,834

119

888

1,235

North West

266

7,400

1,044

10,015

360

3,669

1,670

Yorkshireand theHumber

178

1,400

809

4,926

636

388

1,623

East Midlands

178

3,157

871

9,624

240

332

1,289

West Midlands

292

2,400

1,658

14,062

416

6,470

2,366

East ofEngland

246

4,286

1,486

12,659

420

4,500

2,152

London

443

5,915

1,364

20,560

392

7,263

2,199

South East Coast

306

2,159

1,241

10,765

243

4,785

1,790

South Central

290

3,200

1,170

5,318

192

858

1,652

South West

161

3,088

1,459

13,565

890

5,187

2,510

Total

2,780

38,254

11,798

108,327

3,908

34,340

18,486

Source: information supplied to the Department of Health by SHAs

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  These figures include end of year spending commitments

3  Spend figures have been rounded to the nearest £000

Also published today is a bulletin on the Cancer Drugs Fund from the National Cancer Action Team (NCAT). NCAT worked with ten Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) to gather and share information on how the Cancer Drugs Fund is being used.

Updates to this page

Published 29 August 2012