Expensive Drugs
14:09
Janet Finch-Saunders
First Minister, here in Wales under your Government, too many are now denied the chance of vital life-saving drugs if deemed too expensive. Thousands have signed the petition in support of Irfon Williams of north Wales, called ‘Fighting Chance’, who, if he moves to England, will actually receive the life-prolonging drugs that he requires. Are you not ashamed as the First Minister of Wales that people are potentially dying as a result of your Government and its inability to provide your Welsh patients with a fighting chance?
14:09
Carwyn Jones/The First Minister
I challenge the Conservative Party to name a single life-saving drug that exists in the cancer drugs fund in England; there aren’t any. They are drugs that—[Interruption.] Ah, prolonging, she says. No, no, no, she was emotive about this. She said there are people dying—‘dying’ is what she said—because of the lack of availability of drugs in Wales. She cannot change her tune now. And, can I say, she mentions the person—[Interruption.] No, no, no, don’t try and speak on her behalf, please, I’ll ask the leader of the opposition—she’s well able to speak on her own behalf. The point to make is, she makes reference to a particular case of somebody who is allegedly going to move to England to access a drug on the cancer drugs fund. That drug is being axed from the cancer drugs fund on 12 March in England. So, it will not be available on the cancer drugs fund in England, anyway, from 12 March. So, that’s not going to help the unfortunate person involved. They should’ve done the research on that, and they would’ve known this particular drug is being moved from the cancer drugs fund in England within a fortnight, and that drug will then not be available via the cancer drugs fund in England.
So, again, I make this point: it is absurd to say, as the Prime Minister has said, that somehow people are being denied life-saving drugs and are dying in Wales. That is wrong, and I challenge the Conservative Party to give us a single example of a life-saving drug—life-saving drug—that is not available in Wales. They will fall far short on that, as they always do.
14:11
Alun Ffred Jones
I don’t think that the family of Mr Irfon Williams will thank you for the kind of debate that we’ve just had on this particular case. Mr Irfon Williams, who has a baby son, is being cared for by a cancer specialist at Aintree hospital in Liverpool, and it’s that specialist who has made the request for the drug cetuximab. Now, Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board has rejected that application, and rejected a second one too. My question is: shouldn’t difficult cases like this be dealt with at an all-Wales level, rather than being left to local health boards, in order to ensure consistency and fairness?
14:12
Carwyn Jones/ The First Minister
First of all, may I say this to the Member? I believe that it’s true that, sometimes, discussions take place where we forget the individual. I accept that. Of course, all that I would say is that this would not be how I would have chosen to see his case raised in this Assembly; it was the choice of the person who posed the question. We forget that there is an individual here, and an individual who is dealing with a serious cancer, and I accept that. The point is, things are no different in England; though I accept that that is of no help to him.
The question is a fair question in my view: should we have uniformity across Wales? I think that there is strength in the point that the Member makes and I know that it is something that the Minister is considering at present, in considering the system that we have in Wales to deal with these requests. Of course, I am certain that the case of Irfon Williams, and other individuals, will be considered so that we improve the system here in Wales.