Cancer Drugs

Debate between Nic Dakin and Mark Tami

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend has outlined all the hoops that people have to leap through. If their timing is wrong, they may or more likely may not qualify for the drug. That is happening when patients are at their weakest. They are not experts, and they find themselves victims of what can appear to be a very cruel and harsh system.

[Nic Dakin]

My hon. Friend is right that patients and their families are at a critical point, which is why it is important that, on this difficult issue, we try our best to find a way forward that is sensitive to the need for such exceptional drugs in exceptional circumstances. In many ways, the Government should be praised for introducing the cancer drugs fund, but the CDF is clearly not fit for purpose when dealing with such exceptional situations, which is what is needed.

Other countries across the world are taking a leap forward in approving Abraxane for their health systems. Abraxane has been approved on price grounds for reimbursement in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Greece, and it has been given the go-ahead in the USA, Canada and Australia. There is a real danger that patients in the UK will be left behind unless they happen to be in Scotland. Removing access to Abraxane could mean that fewer patients can access trials. Moreover, we could be setting back research into a disease that for many years has had the worst survival rates of the most common cancers. This is an opportunity for a breakthrough in medical research that needs to be taken

I ask two things of the Minister, who goes about his work in an assiduous and effective way. First, can he take steps to examine the processes that NICE and the CDF use to consider drugs so that they take into account the exceptional circumstances surrounding drugs of this nature in areas where there has been no medical process or medical hope for many years? Secondly, will he meet me and the other officers of the all-party group on pancreatic cancer to explore the specific issues around Abraxane?

Independent Living Fund Recipients

Debate between Nic Dakin and Mark Tami

Wednesday 18th June 2014 Westminster Hall

[Nic Dakin (Scunthorpe) (Lab)]

The independent living fund has transformed people’s lives. The ILF does exactly what it says on the tin: it liberates people who would otherwise not be able to live independently. It lets them make choices about how they live, things we often take for granted—when to get up or go to bed, what and when to eat. It allows them to work, to be active in the community and to live in their own homes. I challenge the Minister to guarantee to those in receipt of ILF that they will not become less independent as a result of his Government’s decision to close the fund in June 2015. That is what people fear; that is what they are frightened of—they fear losing their jobs, the staff whom they employ to support them and their independence. They fear being forced out of their homes and into institutions.

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

As my hon. Friend might be aware, in Wales the responsibility will go to the Assembly and then to local authorities. I have approached my authority, and it is uncertain what exactly is happening. There is a lot of fear out there among people who are totally reliant on the ILF payment to lead as normal a life as possible. They are being hurt now.

[Nic Dakin]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Minister might well say that he is passing the moneys and the responsibility to local authorities—through the Welsh Assembly in Wales’s case—but that will not ease people’s fears.