Ex-minister welcomes U-turn on NI cancer drugs

A FORMER Health Minister has welcomed increased access to life-prolonging cancer drugs in Northern Ireland.

DUP MLA Edwin Poots said he was “pleasantly surprised” by the U-turn of the Department of Health’s permanent secretary Richard Pengelly.

“No-one in their right mind would be against it, as it gives people with cancer an opportunity for a longer life,” he said.

“One of the issues has always been that these are life-prolonging rather than life-saving drugs. That made it a little more difficult to justify, because they are hugely expensive.

“But when you’ve got the life sentence of terminal cancer, six months or a year can be a massive difference. People would cherish that opportunity to see that family member married or get their child’s GCSE results.”

Dr Andrew Murrison MP is chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee; he welcomed the news but said Northern Ireland still needed an overall cancer strategy which could not be signed off without a Health Minister.

“He’s 100% right,” said Mr Poots.

“We’ve made remarkable progress on cancer and we shouldn’t write that off. We have very good records on a number of cancers and actually have a very good research base.

“You can’t do too much against cancer, so yes we do need a cancer strategy and we need Ministers back in place to initiate that process so we can raise the bar further. In the meantime we are failing in our duty by not taking those vital decisions.”