Conservatives to scrap Labour’s jobs tax on NHS and use savings for cancer drugs

Cancer patients in West Berkshire will get access to drugs that they are currently denied under Labour if the Conservatives win the general election, Richard Benyon, Conservative Candidate for Newbury announced today.

Under the bold new plans, the NHS would save £200 million because Conservatives will stop Labour’s jobs tax on employers. This NHS saving would be used to pay for drugs which have been blocked by the Government’s quango, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). In Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, which employs 4,834 staff, the cost of Labour’s increase in Employers’ National Insurance contributions – the jobs tax – is estimated to be £725,100.

·            The Labour Government has failed to provide patients with the cancer drugs they need – drugs which are widely available in Europe. Britain has more cancer deaths per head than Bulgaria. The current system lets Ministers off the hook. They blame bad decisions on unaccountable bureaucrats in NICE, the agency which approves drugs for the NHS.

·            Under the Conservative blueprint, the money that would have been eaten up by Labour’s jobs tax would go straight to a new Cancer Drugs Fund. No cancer patient will be refused access to drugs that have been licensed since 2005 if their doctors say they need them.

·            Conservatives will also change the way that drug companies are paid for NHS medicines. Effective treatments for all conditions, not just cancer, would become available on the NHS, with drug providers paid according to the value of their new treatments.

Richard Benyon said:

“There is a clear choice at this election: Labour and their jobs tax that will take £200 million out of the NHS budget; or the Conservatives who will stop the jobs tax and use the savings in the NHS budget to create a Cancer Drugs Fund.

“The NHS is our number one priority. We are committed to helping our NHS become truly world-class. Giving West Berkshire’s patients access to cancer drugs widely available in Europe is a key part of our plan for change and making the NHS even better.”

Notes to Editors

CANCER PATIENTS NOT GETTING THE DRUGS THEY NEED

Third of cancer drugs turned down: NHS quango, NICE, has assessed 15 new cancer drugs since November 2008. A third of them have been turned down completely and the rest have only been partially recommended for use in the NHS (Hansard, 16 March 2010, Col.765WA).

Fewer cancer drugs available in the UK: An international study comparing different European countries has found that: ‘Austria, France and Switzerland are leaders in the uptake of new cancer drugs’ and that: ‘The uptake of cancer drugs in the UK is far below the European average’ (Nils Wilking et al, Comparator Report on Patient Access to Cancer Drugs in Europe, 15 February 2009).

Cancer survival rates lower in Britain: Each year around 240,000 people in England are diagnosed with cancer and around 129,000 die from the disease. In the last 20 years, the UK has seen a substantial decline in cancer mortality. But survival rates in Britain still lag behind European average levels; indeed, the gap between the average number of deaths from cancer in European countries and the UK overall has widened over the last 13 years. It has been estimated that up to 11,000 deaths from cancer in England could be prevented every year if survival rates were at the levels of the best-performing countries in Europe (Abdel-Rahman M, et al., What if cancer survival in Britain were the same as in Europe: how many deaths are avoidable?, British Journal of Cancer, vol 101, pp S115-S124, 2009). Bulgaria has 170.3 cancer deaths per 100,000 population whereas the UK had 178.1 according to the most recent comparative figures (Eurostat health data, 2007).

EFFECT OF LABOUR’S JOBS TAX ON THE NHS

Labour’s jobs tax will cost the NHS £200 million: The Labour Government’s increase in National Insurance rates would put increased spending pressure on the NHS. This is because the NHS, just like any other employer, would also have to pay the one per cent increase in Employers’ National Insurance rates. The cost to the NHS would be around £200 million – approximately £150 per employee (HM Treasury, Budget 2010; NHS Information Centre, Workforce statistics, 25 March 2010).

No new money to cover the cost of the jobs tax: Labour are not providing any extra money for the NHS to cover the cost of their tax on jobs. It will therefore have to be paid for from the NHS budget through their plans for £4.4 billion of ‘efficiency savings’ in the NHS by 2012-13 (Department of Health Press Release, 24 March 2010).

CONSERVATIVE PLANS

Conservative plans will save the NHS £200 million – to be spent on frontline services. Conservatives will increase NHS spending every year in real terms. On top of this, our plans to reverse the bulk of Labour’s tax on jobs will lead to savings of £200 million from the NHS budget. This money will then be available to spend on frontline services again – which is why we are able to say that we will use it to create a Cancer Drugs Fund to give all cancer patients the new drugs they need. In the longer term we want to overhaul the way drugs are assessed and priced so that all the best new drugs are available on the NHS.

Macmillan Cancer Support has supported Conservative plans saying: ‘If a clinician is saying that my patient will actually benefit from this treatment than it should be made available. People will call our helpline and say they are so desperate to get hold of this drug their physician has told them about it. They will talk about mortgaging their house, remortgaging their house to actually get hold of it, which is why we can't allow current system to continue’ (The Daily Telegraph, 3 April 2010).

Make more drugs available. We will reform the way drug companies are paid for NHS medicines so that any effective treatment can be made available through the NHS, with drug providers paid according to the value of their new treatments. These reforms – a move to a system known as ‘value-based pricing’ – will take effect by 2014 and will give cancer patients access to the kind of treatments commonplace in Europe but denied here.

Until the introduction of value-based pricing in 2014, a Conservative government will use the money Labour would have spent on Employers’ National Insurance Contributions for NHS staff to create a Cancer Drugs Fund, giving all patients access to the cancer drugs their doctors say they need if these drugs have been licensed since 2005. This will include any drugs licensed between that date and when our value-based pricing reforms take effect in 2014. We will add this money to the NHS tariff in order to pay for the extra cost of these drugs. This means that if these drugs have been licensed as being safe since 2005, doctors will be able to prescribe them without needing to apply to their Primary Care Trust for funding.

Speed up NICE approval. We will ensure that NICE appraises new cancer drugs at the same time as they are licensed as safe by the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. This will mean no more delay between a drug being approved as safe and then having to be approved as cost effective for NHS use.

LOCAL FIGURES

The table below shows the number of staff working in each NHS Trust and an estimate of the potential effect of Labour’s jobs tax. The estimate is based on the average cost of £150 in extra Employers’ National Insurance contributions per worker.

NHS Trust	Government region	Total staff (headcount)	Estimate of the cost of Labour's jobs tax
Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	East Midlands	3,586	£537,900
Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East Midlands	7,476	£1,121,400
Kettering General Hospital NHS Trust	East Midlands	3,702	£555,300
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust	East Midlands	5,435	£815,250
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust	East Midlands	12,486	£1,872,900
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East Midlands	4,215	£632,250
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust	East Midlands	7,872	£1,180,800
University Hospitals Of Leicester NHS Trust	East Midlands	12,504	£1,875,600
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	4,355	£653,250
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust	East of England	2,580	£387,000
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	8,318	£1,247,700
Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	3,544	£531,600
East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust	East of England	5,843	£876,450
Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust	East of England	1,735	£260,250
Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust	East of England	4,284	£642,600
James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	3,303	£495,450
Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	3,635	£545,250
Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust	East of England	4,219	£632,850
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust	East of England	6,480	£972,000
Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	1,615	£242,250
Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	3,682	£552,300
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust	East of England	3,584	£537,600
Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust	East of England	3,081	£462,150
Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	East of England	4,394	£659,100
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust	East of England	4,187	£628,050
West Suffolk Hospitals NHS Trust	East of England	2,789	£418,350
Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust	London	5,809	£871,350
Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust	London	4,902	£735,300
Barts and The London NHS Trust	London	7,762	£1,164,300
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	London	3,177	£476,550
Ealing Hospital NHS Trust	London	1,828	£274,200
Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust	London	5,619	£842,850
Great Ormond Street Hospital For Children NHS Trust	London	3,602	£540,300
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust	London	10,808	£1,621,200
Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust	London	2,932	£439,800
Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	London	2,947	£442,050
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust	London	10,010	£1,501,500
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	London	7,210	£1,081,500
Kingston Hospital NHS Trust	London	3,089	£463,350
Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust	London	2,581	£387,150
Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust	London	3,098	£464,700
Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	London	1,420	£213,000
Newham University Hospital NHS Trust	London	2,421	£363,150
North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	London	2,252	£337,800
North West London Hospitals NHS Trust	London	4,905	£735,750
Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust	London	2,998	£449,700
Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust	London	5,823	£873,450
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust	London	2,690	£403,500
Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust	London	1,412	£211,800
South London Healthcare NHS Trust	London	7,111	£1,066,650
St George's Healthcare NHS Trust	London	6,696	£1,004,400
University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	London	7,660	£1,149,000
West Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust	London	2,084	£312,600
Whipps Cross University Hospital NHS Trust	London