NHS Quizzed Over Proton Beam Cancer Therapy

A Sky News investigation has led to calls for the NHS to explain why it appears to be wasting millions of pounds sending cancer patients to the United States instead of Europe for treatment that is not yet available in the UK.

Some £250m has been set aside to develop two proton therapy centres in Britain, but they will not be up and running until at least 2018.

In the meantime, more than 90% of people approved for proton therapy are sent to America where it can cost twice as much as European centres.

Critics argue the money saved could be used to fund more patients' potentially life-saving treatment.

Two-year-old Freya Bevan, from South Wales, had brain surgery to remove a tumour and needs radiotherapy to continue her treatment.

Her family and doctors wanted her to go to America for proton beam therapy, but after a nine-week wait for a decision, the NHS in Wales refused.

While the final decision was taken by the NHS in Wales, the central panel to which all proton requests are referred is overseen by NHS England.

The treatment, according to the family, will cost £130,000 and is now being paid for by a charity.

But some experts believe it could have been provided in Europe at a fraction of the cost and without the need for Freya to fly across the Atlantic.

Her case has similarities to that of Ashya King, who made worldwide headlines when his parents defied doctors in Southampton and took him for proton treatment in Prague sparking a Europe-wide manhunt in the process.

Freya's mum, Katherine, said she also seriously considered fleeing to the Czech Republic before the charity stepped in.

"Many times I could've run away to Prague or anywhere just to get the treatment, any parent will want the best treatment they can for their child," she said.

The Procure Centre in Oklahoma is one of two in the US where the NHS pays for proton therapy. The other is in Jacksonville, Florida .

A third centre in Switzerland is also approved, but according to figures given in a parliamentary answer by Conservative Health Minister Jane Ellison, none of the 124 patients sent abroad for proton therapy last year went anywhere but the US.

Questions are now being asked about the commissioning process and why nine out of 10 patients the NHS funded in the past five years were sent to the US, where the full cost of treatment, accommodation and travel can run to more than £100,000 when there are facilities closer and cheaper in Europe.

Senior Labour backbencher Roger Godsiff said it is "ludicrous" and wants answers from the Government.

The MP said: "If we can save some money by getting people who need this very specialist treatment, treated in a country at half the price of America then we should be doing that."

One of his own constituents, Juliette Harrison from Birmingham, was also refused NHS funding for proton therapy to treat her brain tumour.

She paid £37,000 herself to go to the centre in Prague.

She said she could not afford to go to the US and also believed her health would have suffered making such a long trip.

"If you are diagnosed with something like that then you shouldn't be subjected to a huge plane flight, not only is there the long journey , but I personally think they are putting people at risk," she said.

NHS England said it selected providers using a series of criteria, including clinical experience, spoken English, price and waiting times.

According to NHS England the average cost of treatment is £75,000 and in the year 2012/2013, £8.26m was spent in total.

It refused to make anyone available to be interviewed by Sky News, but said in a statement: "We have no plans to expand our overseas programme to any other centres at this time."

Sky News has seen a letter sent to Dame Barbara Hakin, national commissioning director for NHS England, by Iva Tatounova, strategy director for the treatment centre in the Czech Republic.

In it she wrote: "We have had a growing number of requests for treatment here in Prague ( self-payers) and, I must say, also a lot of unhappy patients and parents with sick children, who would be eligible for proton therapy, but NHS doctors do not want to recommend it since we do not have a contract.

"Bureaucracy, therefore, is a barrier between the patient and the best possible care."

But the response from Dame Barbara's department said NHS England was not currently looking for any other providers.

Ms Tatounova said no one from the NHS had ever been to see their facilities in Prague.