HEALTH bosses spent more on legal costs denying a cancer patient the life-extending drug Sutent than it would have cost to provide it.

Salford Primary Care Trust paid more than £17,000 in a legal battle with Jean Murphy, 63, after they refused her the drug in May.

But the cash could have funded six months' worth of Sutent and paid for Mrs Murphy's treatment until the PCT did a U-turn in October and agreed to fund the drug for her.

The figures, obtained under Freedom of Information by our sister paper the Salford Advertiser, show the PCT paid £17, 282 to legal firm Hill Dickinson LLP to represent them during a High Court battle, which they lost when a judge ruled they had to review their decision.

Two weeks later, Mrs Murphy, who has kidney cancer, was again denied the drug, which costs £3,500 for a six-week cycle, after a hearing at the trust HQ. In August, an anonymous donor gave £10,000 to fund the drug for three months; then in October, the PCT reversed their decision and will fund the drug as long as it is needed.

Mrs Murphy said: "I just do not understand what these people are thinking about.

"I am very angry to hear the PCT could spend this amount when they were denying me the chance to even try the drug - that would only have cost £3,500 for one cycle.

"I think t this whole thing has been farcical."

Trust chief executive Dr Mike Burrows said: "The potential cost of providing high-cost cancer drugs, such as Sutent, to all patients in Greater Manchester would be more than £3m a year.

"The PCT needs to have procedures for handling such applications. If PCTs did not make and defend these difficult funding decisions, the NHS would rapidly become unaffordable."
Tweet