Just been reading his article in today’s Telegraph. The difference in annual spending, per cancer patient, between the highest spender, Nottingham City £17,028 and the lowest spender, Oxfordshire £5,182 is quite outrageous. The Telegraph only gives the figures for the top and bottom ten - as yet I’ve not found who produced the figures so no table for the entire country. Also it appears to be England only.
the url for the story is:
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/26/nhealth126.xml#1
I don’t know why the spend is so high in Newham as the population is relatively young so rates of cancer are probably lower than average. As far as I can see they aren’t getting value for money as the clinics they run at my local hospital for breast cancer are too small to be viable (they diagnose less than 100 patients per year which Dr Foster says is too low).
My worry is that throwing money at something locally doesn’t necessarily result in better care
Mole
Maybe they fund per area rather than on population? That way the larger areas/ higher rate of cancer would have less to spend per patient.
I’ve still not found anything on the gov websites about this, yet it is supposed to be a gov survey!
I have treatment in Oxford and keep being told we are the lowest funded county in the country, its not only cancer patients at risk, the article was also in the news of the world and they gave the top 20 and bottom 20 but no mention of the unfairness of funding. I would imagine we would be in bottom for other spend medical studies.
However I did get herceptin and Taxotere 6 months before NICE approval (every chemo nurse was amazed) 1st not to be a trial, my Onc had to put up a fight and put my case before the board to get the extra funding.
Debbie.
I would be interested in the welsh local health authorities also if anyone has this information
Denio
I found this link from News of World website, which gives more detail, including % of total expenditure - I think it must cover Wales also?
Thanks Kentishlass - the tables make for interesting reading! It is just England though, maybe we will have to wait for the Welsh Assembly to publish theirs
What a interesting thread this is thanks for posting it.
I am a little disappointed at Liverpools spending on cancer patients as i know the incidents of cancer here is high. I have always been told that my breast cancer unit is one of the ‘top’ in the county and we would not have difficulty getting the best treatment. I wonder.
Rx
Hi Folks,
I agree with Mole, I am receiving care from Nottingham City Hospital, whilst I feel I am getting reasonable care reading some other Threads Nottingham could still learn a few lessons. They can chuck as much money as they like at cancer, but its where they chuck it that counts. Yes our revamped Chemo suite was well overdue but it still runs very late, unfilled prescriptions, basics of keeping patients aware of delays do not happen. On the whole, for me, over the two years I have never had a smoothly run appointment.
The Breast Clinic is excellent the BC Nurses spot on but the oncology department runs 2 hours late on a regular basis, not good for the sick. The overbooking of clinics can reduce the waiting list but it is infuriating when you see the old folks almost passing out with fatigue. I have had to chase up my care re portacath fitting, Herceptin Results (Don’t get me started on that one!).
I am not happy with the Onc at City and have written letters on two occasions, nothing changes but at least I will stand up and be counted.
Rant over!
Carol
I wonder if any Oncology units keep to appt times. I have waited 2 hours before now, fortunately i was not feeling very ill. If i am getting results i make a early morning appt.
When going with my mum some years ago for oncology appts we regularily waited over 2 and a half hours, she was very ill and suffered from anxiety attacks, it was so distressing for her.
From what i can gather there are not enough oncologists and we all know why ‘money’.
R
My record wait was 4.5 hours… and that was a day that I wasn’t actually getting any blood test or treatment, just waiting to see the oncologist, then the breast care nurse (poor communication in the department, to say the least!!)… so that they could authorise the pharmacy to give me tablets…
Thankfully that was a one-off! I was in and out of the hospital in only 45 minutes last week, at the radiotherapy planning session. Does this bode well for the future? Maybe the radiology department works more to the scheduled appointment times than the oncology department… I live in hope!!
AliS