New Cancer Treatments

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Health and Social Services – in the Senedd at 2:27 pm on 23 October 2019.

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Photo of Lynne Neagle Lynne Neagle Labour 2:27, 23 October 2019

Minister, I’ve been raising concerns about the individual patient funding process with you throughout your time as Minister. I did the same with your predecessor and the same with his predecessor too. My constituent, Gemma Williams, a young mother with two young children, has stage 3 breast cancer. Her oncologist wants to treat her with Kadcyla to prevent the progression of the disease. Like most patients told she needs a drug for a life-threatening illness, she and, apparently, her oncologist, thought it would be straightforward. Now, after two successive refusals by the IPFR panel in Gwent, Gemma is having to launch a fundraising campaign to raise the money to pay for her treatment. Now, even though the difference in cost between Kadcyla and the drugs she is on—which her clinician has acknowledged are unlikely to help her—is a small difference, she will, of course, have to fundraise the full cost of the treatment, some £45,000. Minister, I still don’t believe that the IPFR process is working for my constituents, and it certainly isn’t working for Gemma Williams. Can I ask you whether you can look again at this to ensure that all patients in Wales, including my constituents, are getting the access to the new treatments that their clinicians believe they need?