SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood.
The Health Minister has been called to end the “glaring inequality” in cancer treatment available to patients in Northern Ireland.
The call comes from Derry SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood who is backing the Cancer Focus Northern Ireland Equal Access Campaign to make new cancer treatment drugs available in England accessible to patients here.
Mr Eastwood said thefailure to supply 38 cancer drugs to patients living in Northern Ireland was a “glaring inequality” was not acceptable.
He added: “The fact that these drugs are available in England is deeply unfair.
“Our party has raised this issue consistently in the Assembly and the House of Commons. We will continue to raise this issue until we see equal access to treatment for cancer patients across these Islands.
“The SDLP has spoken to patients and clinicians alike. Often doctors are recommending treatment paths for cancer patients here while they are aware that better, more effective and life lengthening treatments exist across the water.
“Patients and Clinicians can no longer be put in such an invidious position.”
Mr Colum added it was time the Minister for Health to rectify this “gross inequality as a matter of urgency.”
Since June, the Equal Access Campaign has generated almost 24,000 pledges of support from members of the public, through an online petition and by a postcard campaign.
