NHS England, Department of Health Failed to Manage CDF, Report Finds

England’s Department of Health and NHS England have failed to manage the Cancer Drugs Fund effectively by not carrying out its intended purpose and significantly outspending its budget, according to a report released by the UK Parliament’s House of Commons.

The report, issued by the body’s Committee of Public Accounts, says that the fund was established to promote access to new cancer therapies and drugs for rare cancers that are not routinely on the NHS. However, 59 percent of the patients the fund supported between April 2013 and March 2015 were being treated for colorectal, prostate or breast cancer — three of the four most common types of cancer.

It also found that NHS England exceeded the fund’s roughly $695 million budget by about $242 million for the two years 2013-14 and 2014-15. The agency did not start to take action to control costs until November 2014 — when it cut the number of drugs available through the fund — and still expects to overspend by about $231 million in 2015-16, the report says.

Read the report here: www.fdanews.com/02-05-16-CancerDrugFundReport.pdf.