CANCER SERVICES

Patients often wonder whether private cancer treatment is better than the NHS?

We’ve explained some of the differences below 

NHS Cancer Treatment

If you are treated for cancer via the NHS, you’ll be treated by a high quality, cancer specialist.

Your assigned specialist will work with you to find the best and most suitable treatments. Treatment provided by the NHS is second to none – however increasing pressure and demand means waiting times are starting to become an increasing problem. Private health insurance can help provide that extra peace of mind – if you have the right cover or are able to self-fund you can often receive quicker access to scans and treatments. 

Private Health Care and Cancer Treatment

Similarly to the NHS, once your cancer has been diagnosed you will be assigned a cancer consultant who will decide which treatments are going to be the most beneficial.

However, it is more than likely that you will see the same consultant through your whole treatment process which can be reassuring and can also provide you with more time to discuss on-going symptoms. 

According to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity, it is estimated that there are currently 3 million people living with cancer in the UK, rising to 4 million by 2030 and, 5.3 million by 2040. 

Each year, around 393,000 people are diagnosed with cancer, in the UK. On average someone is diagnosed with cancer at least every 90 seconds, in the UK. Cancer incidence in the UK has risen by 40% since 2002, and by 19% only in the last decade ii. This is likely due to the growing and aging population who are at higher risk of developing cancer, as well as improvements in diagnosis initiatives and public awareness. 

Some cancer treatments at private hospital are not always available on the NHS as some private providers offer new treatments/procedures that the NHS does not offer. 

Seeking treatment in a private hospital with cancer specialties can offer a wide range of new up to date and advanced diagnostic services such as tomotherapy, gamma camera, ultra sound, brachytherapy, gamma knife surgery in addition to MRI / CT scans, your hospital will discuss the best options with you. 

Treatments privately are available immediately with little or no waiting time and are carried out in the comfort of the private hospital. 

Organisations that Regulate Drug Treatment Availability

Of course, everyone has read stories in the papers about cancer drugs provided in some areas of the  UK but not others. This has sometimes been called the post code lottery. 

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) was set up to overcome this in England. In Wales the All Wales Medical Strategy Group (AWMSG) was set up and work with NICE. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) was set up in Scotland. 

The role of NICE, AWMSG and the SMC are to

• Examine the evidence for new treatments
• See if they work or not
• See if they are cost effective
• Judge whether they should be freely available on the NHS 

NICE, AWMSG and the SMC review all types of treatments, not just new drugs. If they approve a treatment, health authorities have to provide it. The trouble is that many new treatments are extremely expensive. Health authorities sometimes say that other areas of health care will have to be cut if they are forced to provide expensive new treatments. 

Other new treatments may need specialist equipment and training. This all takes time to set up and your local cancer centre may not have all this in place by the time you need it, this is why it can be beneficial to go privately as a lot of private hospitals already offer services / treatments that some NHS trusts do not offer.  

New Unproven Treatments

New treatments may be available privately even if they have not been fully tested in clinical trials. The NHS will not provide them because the evidence that the new treatment is better than the available standard treatments is not complete. NICE cannot review them and recommend as a treatment until the clinical trials have been completed. 

Obviously if you read about new treatments in the press, you may find it hard to understand that the treatment is not available to you. You may be able to get the treatment privately but you will have to pay and some cancer treatments can cost many thousands of pounds however your private medical insurance may cover this.