This week’s Journal runs the story:

Cancer drugs wait: Haringey in UK’s bottom four

CANCER sufferers in Haringey face one of the longest fights in the country for drugs to treat their illness.

Patients have to wait up to three months for a decision on appeals for certain types of medication, putting the Haringey Teaching Primary Care Trust (PCT) in the bottom four of England’s 152 trusts.

It relates to waiting times for appeals for drugs that are either judged too expensive or have not been assessed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

The survey by charity Macmillan Cancer Support has led to renewed demands for action by Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone.

She said: “Three months is not acceptable about decisions that mean the difference between life and death.”