The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7191 p419-425
30 March 2002

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Cancer cash used to pay off NHS debts, say MPs

The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee says that millions of pounds allocated to improving cancer services may have been spent on repaying National Health Service debts instead.

"The increase in cancer care funding, often quoted over recent months, may not be reaching those who are relying on it to deliver the cancer plan," the select committee says. "We are seriously concerned at the apparent ease with which trusts can redeploy such funds if they choose."

Expressing concern that funding was allocated by the Department of Health to cancer care without the simplest precautions being taken to ensure that it reached the intended areas, the committee says: "It is vital that end-of-year accounts for 2000–01, when eventually published, reveal exactly where cancer plan funds were deployed, and that trusts be made answerable for any cancer funding spent on other services or financial requirements."

In evidence, cancer specialists told the committee that most of the £280m allocated to improving cancer care in 2000–01 was spent elsewhere.

Professor Gordon McVie, joint director of Cancer Research UK, said: "I think there is still some mystery about where some of the money is, whether the cheque got lost in the post, or whether it has been absorbed like creosote into the fence post of the administration of the health service."

Following the report's publication, the chief executive of the cancer charity CancerBACUP, Joanne Rule, said: "If the NHS has borrowed money from cancer services then it's time it was paid back. Cash for cancer care should be spent on patients, not on helping hospitals balance their books."