Petition for cancer treatment to be funded reaches 46,000 signatories
The cancer charity Planets is leading the campaign for the treatment, known as selective internal radiation therapy (Sirt), to be made available through the NHS after it was approved for use more than a year ago.
A spokesman for the charity said: 'Every year approximately 6,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with NETs, a complex and often slow-growing cancer that can be difficult to detect and treat.
'Many patients develop tumours in the liver where the treatment could offer significant benefits.
'Sirt involves injecting millions of tiny radioactive beads called microspheres – smaller than the width of a human hair – into the blood supply in the liver to destroy cancer cells.'
The spokesman said that despite approval by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in May 2024, NHS England had yet to commission it meaning that patients had no timetable for when it might become available.
He added that Sirt was already available on the NHS for patients whose liver cancer developed in the organ directly or which had spread to it from the bowel but NET patients remained excluded.
Layla Stephen, a NET patient from Hampshire and director of strategy and finance for Planets, said: 'Patients are missing out simply because of red tape.
'Without NHS commissioning, only those that can afford to go private have access to Sirt and that is simply not right or fair – we need to change this.'
Ms Stephen added: 'In a statement earlier this year, NHS England said it was developing a national policy on Sirt to ensure all patients across England have the best possible treatment, yet there is still no confirmed timeline despite approval in May last year, leaving patients in limbo and suffering agonising uncertainty.'
Caroline Nokes, Conservative MP for Romsey and Southampton North, has written to health and social care secretary Wes Streeting about the issue.
She said: 'Constituents of mine with neuroendocrine tumours should not be caught in a bureaucratic limbo when effective treatment is both available and approved. There needs to be fairness and transparency for these patients.'
An NHS spokeswoman said previously: 'The NHS understands the concerns raised about access to selective internal radiation therapy (Sirt) for neuroendocrine tumours in the liver.
'The health service is currently reviewing a clinical proposal and developing a new national mandated NHS policy on Sirt to ensure all patients across England have the best possible treatment for their liver metastases.'
The petition can be found at: change.org/p/ensure-access-for-cancer-patients-to-life-changing-treatment-approved-by-nice.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Alice Figueiredo: NHS trust recorded patient ate breakfast three days after he died
An NHS mental health trust, recently found guilty of serious failings in the care of a young patient who took her own life, has had serious concerns raised over the deaths of 20 other patients over the last 10 years, the BBC has have repeatedly highlighted issues about the North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), including about the quality of risk assessments and two cases patient notes were found to have been falsified. Including one man who was recorded as eating breakfast three days after he had Old Bailey jury last week found the trust guilty of health and safety breaches in the care of 22-year-old Alice Figueiredo who was an inpatient at NELFT's Goodmayes hospital. This article contains distressing material related to suicide. Alice, who died in 2015, had attempted to harm herself on 18 occasions using plastic bags or bin liners, often taken from the same communal toilet. Despite this, the bags were not removed, and the toilet was left unlocked. On the 19th occasion Alice took her own trust was cleared of the more serious charge of corporate the trial, NELFT said it extended its "deepest sympathy for the pain and heartbreak" her family had suffered over the past 10 years, saying that it would "consider the verdict and its implications". It will be sentenced in BBC can now reveal in the decade since Alice's death, NELFT has been repeatedly criticised by coroners for failures in patient care. In the last decade, nearly 30 prevention of future deaths (PFD) reports from coroners have mentioned these, the BBC has analysed 20 which raise the most serious two cases where patients took their own lives inquests concluded records had been altered after their most common criticism found the assessment of the risk patients posed to themselves was poor or incomplete. Cases also highlighted poor record-keeping, a lack of communication between teams, staff shortages and high patients who died of overdoses were said to have been on short-term medication for 18 years and 20 years, with no record of that having been response, NELFT says it is continually improving "safety and treatment for patients, as well as the experience of families and carers". It also says it is improving record-keeping, tackling historical staff shortages and changing the way staff assess and manage risk, with all in-patient staff undergoing Charles, whose husband Winbourne's case is one of the most disturbing, said the Trust needed "to look at everything". Mr Charles was a patient at Goodmayes hospital nearly six years after Alice Figueiredo's describes him as "a beautiful man, a beautiful soul", but during the Covid-19 pandemic, the 58-year-old became increasingly in her kitchen, she is looking at videos and photos of Winbourne. His close childhood friend, Winston Andrews, is sitting alongside her as they laugh and smile at the memories."I had never known a part of my life when he wasn't in it," Winston says. "He was a brother rather than a friend."But at the end of 2020, Winbourne became so unwell he was admitted to Goodmayes says they all felt they had "tried everything", adding: "So maybe it is the right place for him to be, to try and get some help."On 10 April 2021, five months after being admitted to the hospital, Winbourne took his own life. For advice and support, visit BBC Action Line Carole and her children had spoken to him on a video call the day before. She describes her shock at the news, saying she was "absolutely devastated". She had thought "he was going in there to get better and come home".Only at his inquest did Winbourne's family and friends discover the failures in care which contributed to his death. The Prevention of Future Deaths report says a psychologist assessed Winbourne as being at high risk of harming himself. This was on his clinical record, but it was not read or discussed by the team of doctors and other clinicians overseeing his concluded there was "no risk" of him self-harming. The family says it meant the observations or checks on him made by staff were reduced from every 15 minutes to one an then, and against Trust policy, observations were stopped for all patients for an hour on the day he died. Between 16:00 and 17:00, the report says "all patients subject to general observation on the ward were ignored".Winbourne was discovered soon after 17:00, about two hours after he was last checked. Staff 'panicked' The report says "staff agreed they panicked". The alarm bell was not sounded and doctors were not called promptly. A ligature cutter was locked in a box and no one knew the combination to unlock it. It also says: "Staff could not or would not provide a clear and relevant history to paramedics."The report questions the credibility of the Trust staff who gave evidence to the inquest. It says observation records appeared to have been cut and pasted, including three entries that were made after he had died."They'd written observations of Winbourne being in the day room, sitting there eating his breakfast, and this was three days after he'd passed away," says Carole."Key to the observations is that you actually do the observations," says Winston. "You fill in the log. Clearly, they hadn't done it." Carole and Winston also say they were deeply shocked when one of the staff members who gave evidence by video link, tried to do this from his bed."He was actually in bed. My mouth dropped," says Winston. "In a microcosm that showed me what kind of care Winbourne was getting."A second staff member was on the tube heading to catch a flight. In both cases the family says the coroner, Graeme Irvine, intervened Irvine, senior coroner for east London, concluded Mr Charles had died from suicide, contributed to by neglect. He sent his PFD report to the trust and the Department of Health and Social Care to highlight what he had found. NELFT, which provides mental health services for nearly five million people living in north-east London, Essex, Medway and Kent and employs about 6,500 staff, said it "apologised unreservedly" for his added: "We accepted all the findings from the coroner in April 2023, as well as the unacceptable behaviour of staff at the inquest."Those staff were managed in line with human resources policies and disciplinary procedures, it said. The charity, Inquest, has provided support for many families around the country who believe their loved ones have been failed by the mental health system. In Ms Figueiredo's case, her family spent 10 years fighting to get director, Deborah Coles, said: "It should not be down to families to have to fight for cultural and policy change."She said she believed avoidable deaths were happening "far too often" and trusts should "move away from a culture of defensiveness and denial and cover-up" to one that is concerned about learning and improvement and protecting said she hoped plans for a new duty of candour, known as the Hillsborough Law, would change Charles, who has been a care worker for older and disabled people and says she knows what care is needed when people are vulnerable, remains sceptical about whether NELFT will learn from the deaths of patients like her husband and Alice Figueiredo."They keep saying they are going to change and they don't," she says. "These are people's lives which are taken. It leaves families devastated."
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Cornwall 'leading the way in diabetes care'
Diabetes super clinics are being expanded across Cornwall to help educate patients and improve long term well-being, health bosses have said. NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly said it was "leading the way in good diabetes care" through its work with Three Harbours and Bosvena Primary Care Network (PCN).It said people living with diabetes were being supported through established support groups and socially prescribed health walks. Jennie Brown, a member of the walking group at Lanhydrock, said the walks and the people taking part "had been really supportive and really helpful". Ms Brown said: "After my husband died I had a year of not looking after myself and basically I was eating a diet of white carbs and sugar and got the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes."I was feeling incredibly unhealthy and unwell and I look back now and I've very grateful because it gave me the wake up call I needed to look after myself and to take my health in hand and fulfil my promise to my husband that I would live a good life."I got the diagnosis and decided I was going to turn this around within a year and I did - I lost almost 6st (38kg), was feeling really healthy and full of energy."NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it had created a five-year diabetes transformation plan, working closely with local people with lived experience of the Chris Reid, chief medical officer for NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said he was "so proud of the innovative work" being done across Cornwall. He said: "The diabetes health walk is a great example of how integrated care and community activity can go hand-in-hand to support healthier lives for people with diabetes in Cornwall." 'Diabetes is unique' Tracy Crossley, whose husband Les has diabetes, said the support had helped them both."While I had heard of type 1 diabetes, it wasn't until we attended the courses and meetings that we realised how serious it can be and the potential impact," she said. "Everyone's experience with diabetes is unique, and discussing it openly fosters understanding."The help we've had from the team has been invaluable, giving us knowledge to educate our whole family about how we can support Les – but this journey has also made me more mindful of my own eating habits and what foods I bring into our home.""Our daughter is getting married next year and the thought of Les being fit enough to walk her down the aisle and even dance is a truly wonderful motivation," she added.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Coventry woman's donor plea after having life-saving plasma
A woman who received blood plasma after being diagnosed with a rare condition called thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) has said she would not be here today without from Coventry, who asked not to share her surname, spoke out after the NHS said blood stocks were running chiefs have called for 200,000 new donors to come forward to avoid a "red alert", where there is a threat to public said it took about 150 donors to save her life a couple of years ago. "I wouldn't be talking to you today without people donating plasma. I developed a very rare blood condition a few years ago and in the space of a week, I needed over 150 units of plasma to keep me alive," she said."They took my plasma out of my blood and gave me donor plasma back."NHS trusts describe TTP as a rare disease, related to blood clotting, that has to be treated in said donating blood and plasma "saves lives", adding: "If you've never done it before, it doesn't take long, it's a really simple thing to do, but it makes such a huge difference to people like me".NHS Blood and Transplant, the body that oversees England's blood donation system, has said the number of regular donors needs to rise from about 800,000 to more than one million to maintain a safe and reliable supply. Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
