Minister disputes treatment claim

A fall in the number of people receiving a type of radiotherapy is purely due to clinical reasons, a health minister has said.

Former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio has written a letter to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt describing NHS England as a “national disgrace” over the issue.

Mr Dallaglio, who was asked to work with NHS England on the issue after approaching Prime Minister David Cameron about it, accused the health service of ”turning the clock back” on the way the disease is being treated by not paying for patients to have stereotatic ablative radiotherapy (SABR).

The process involves targeting radiotherapy very precisely at the tumour, meaning that high doses of radiation can be delivered with less risk of it affecting surrounding organs, but the number of people being offered it has fallen by more than 10% since NHS England took control, it has been reported.

But health minister Earl Howe told the House of Lords that the fall was not due to a lack of investment or staff training.

He told peers at question time: “Before NHS England began commissioning specialised services in April 2013, many local arrangement that were in place were outside recommendations issued by the National Radiotherapy Implementation Group.

“Since April 2013, consistent national policy has been in place backed by robust clinical evidence.

“In line with this evidence, the number of SABR indications commissioned has reduced. It is important to ensure that treatments commissioned are supported by robust evidence of their benefit to patients.”

He said current evidence supported the use of the treatment in a “small” number of cases.

“The evidence supports its use in the treatment of early stage lung cancers in patients who are unsuitable for surgery and that is only about 1,000 patients a year,” he said.

But shadow health minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath said Mr Cameron had pledged last October that this kind of treatment would be available for cancer patients who needed it.

He told Lord Howe: “You will be aware of a statement by Mr Lawrence Dallaglio, who was asked by the Government to help with this, who has described it as a national disgrace that NHS England has reneged on a deal to fund these cancer treatments.

“Are you absolutely certain that the reason the number of treatments has fallen is entirely down to clinical reasons?”

Lord Howe replied: “Yes, that is the advice I have received and it goes hand in hand with other advice around other forms of radiotherapy that are increasing very dramatically.”

He said the use of intensity-modulated radiotherapy, which was a similar form for head and neck cancers, had grown “very considerably”.

Mr Cameron today offered at Prime Minister’s Questions to meet Wells Liberal Democrat MP Tessa Munt and Mr Dallaglio to discuss the issue.

Sports star turned charity campaigner Dallaglio, who lost his mother Eileen to cancer in 2008, was asked to work with NHS England on the issue after previously approaching the Prime Minister with his concerns that not enough patients had access to the treatment.

The sportsman, who won the rugby union World Cup in 2003, has raised millions of pounds for charity since launching the Dallaglio Foundation following his mother’s death.

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Minister disputes treatment claim