Postcode lottery of cancer treatment

The postcode lottery in cancer care has been revealed in shock new figures – with some hospitals spending almost three times as much per patient as others.

Thousands of pounds more has been spent on patients in parts of the Black Country compared to those in Staffordshire, where health chiefs are among the 10 lowest spending in the country.

The amounts spent by 152 primary care trusts, show sufferers receiving the level of life-extending drugs, surgery and specialist care vary considerably.

Under the Freedom of Information Act it has been revealed South Staffordshire PCT spent £5,519 in 2007-8, the sixth lowest in the UK, while North Staffordshire PCT was the eighth lowest with £5,634.

Heart of Birmingham Hospital, however, is second highest spender in the UK at £13,753 per person.

Near the lower end of the spectrum is Dudley Central, which paid out £6,191, while Wolverhampton spent £6,570.

Elsewhere, Walsall was 21st in the list of higher spenders shelling out £10,352 per patient and Sandwell 51st at £8,913.

Last year a study of people with advanced cancer was carried out where it showed having drugs which many PCTs refuse to pay can triple life expectancy.

It looked at the fate of 40 patients treated by the University Hospitals Birmingham Foundation Trust who received drugs Sutent and Nexavar for kidney failure with those who did not get funding for them.

Those who had the medication lived for 22 months compared to seven months for those who did not.

Sarah Woolnough, head of policy at Cancer Research UK, said: "These huge variations in how much PCTs spend are worrying.

"We urge the Government to ensure that all PCTs deliver an efficient and high quality service for cancer patients."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health said the Government had established a national initiative to identify and tackle inequalities in cancer service provision and outcomes but decisions on spending priorities were for PCTs to make.