Figures from the Rarer Cancers Foundation show that the number of cancer patients in Wales denied treatment on the NHS has trebled since 2010.
The figures show that since 2010, 236 patients in Wales have been denied cancer treatment that they would have received in England. It has also emerged that spending on cancer treatment is now £1,000 less per patient in Wales than across the border.
Darren Millar AM, Shadow Minister for Health, said:
“Labour Ministers can no longer try to deny the postcode lottery facing so many cancer patients in Wales.
“It is grossly unfair that Welsh patients continue to be denied access to life-extending cancer treatments which are readily available in other parts of the UK.
“The crisis in access to cancer medicines in Wales is one of Welsh Labour’s making. They have been spinning denials for years, ignoring the growing postcode lottery in access to cancer treatments and imposing record-breaking cuts on the Welsh NHS budget.
“It cannot be right that wealthy patients can access free paracetamol while cancer patients are denied the treatments that their clinicians recommend.
“Labour Ministers must recognise that their policy is unfair and urgently set up a Cancer Treatments Fund to widen access to modern cancer medicines as soon as possible.”
