Kidney cancer man's drugs fight

A man with kidney cancer says he has been refused a drug that could save his life and is still waiting for treatment 18 months after being diagnosed - reports the BBC.

Jocelyn Hall, 60, of Tonna, Neath, is taking his local health board (LHB) to judicial review after it refused to pay for him to have the drug, Sunitinib.

Neath Port Talbot LHB said each case for the drug was reviewed individually.

Mr Hall was diagnosed with kidney cancer in September 2006, a fortnight after he gave his notice so he could retire after working in Neath's Metal Box can factory for 44 years.

Surgeons were unable to operate because his tumour had spread to other organs.

Mr Hall's oncologist at Swansea's Singleton Hospital, Professor John Wagstaff, said the drug treatment he wanted his patient to have cost £2,300 every six weeks.

He said: "I've got a number of patients in exactly the same situation, not just with Neath Port Talbot but with other LHBs in south west Wales.

"It's a continuing battle. If he does not get this drug, the only management available to him is to control his symptoms."

Mr Hall's sister, Rosemarie Snow, said: "He has worked all his life and paid into cancer research all his life and he's got nothing.

"The drugs won't cure him but they will help prolong his life. After he worked 44 years of his life, he wants to enjoy his retirement.

Kate Spall, who has become a patient support advocate since her mother died from a rare kidney cancer, said Mr Hall was the "most exceptional" of the more than 40 cases she had advised.

She said: "He has not treatment for nearly two years for terminal cancer. That is just unheard of.

"In Wales today, somebody has not had had one piece of active treatment. That's Third World. That's unbelievable."

A spokeswoman for Neath Port Talbot LHB said she could not comment on individual cases because of confidentiality.

But she said that the local health board took guidance from the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, which said the use of Sumitinib should not be supported in Wales.

Wales: Councils warn on funding figures

Local councils in Wales have criticised their £3.8bn budget settlement for next year from the assembly government.

The assembly, which receives its funding from the UK government and Europe, last week set out its spending plans.

Ministers admitted funding was "tight", saying local government funding would rise by 2.3% next year and by 2.6% and 2.8% in the following two years.

Local Government Minister Brian Gibbons called it a "realistic" deal and said councils must make efficiency savings.

But the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), which represents council leaders, called this year's settlement "appalling" and warned of public services cuts, jobs losses and rising council taxes.

Derek Vaughan, leader of the WLGA, said: "The assembly government seems to think that council tax payers are the solution to their budgetary problems - they can't balance the books, so the people of Wales are expected to cough up."

WLGA education spokesman John Davies, a Pembrokeshire councillor, said education authorities faced "cuts in service, redundancies and school closures" without extra cash or council tax rises.

Liberal Democrat Jenny Randerson said AMs had passed on a "very tight budget" to local authorities "knowing that with local elections next year, people are going to blame their local council, not blame the assembly government".

"I can assure you, they [AMs] wouldn't have been doing this to themselves if it had been an election year in the assembly."

Trust warns of £15m hospital debt

Swansea NHS Trust says it faces going £15.5m into the red unless it closes 86 beds and cuts around 750 jobs - reports the BBC.

Amicus and British Medical Association staff officials say the move is needed to safeguard services and patient care but Unison said it was "unacceptable".

The union has called for a halt to the bed closure programme claiming it was being driven by "financial cut-backs and not any planned improvements in health care".

The trust, which currently employs 9,500 staff and manages health services across the city including Morriston and Singleton Hospitals, claims it could be £15.5m in debt by the end of this financial year.

It said it has been able to avoid large debts in recent years through "one off" savings but now needed to introduce a programme of clinical efficiencies.

It said around 750 posts would go over the next three years through "natural wastage" and it would reduce 86 beds from around 1,800 that are currently used.

Wales: Health bodies face growing debt

The Welsh NHS is continuing to get into debt, with managers forecasting a £33m overspend for the last 12 months, according to research by BBC Wales.

The debt was calculated from a survey of all Welsh NHS Trusts, local health boards and Health Commission Wales.

Overspending has risen by nearly 10% on last year, but the bulk of the deficit is down to a few key institutions.

The final figures will be presented to the Welsh Assembly Government in the coming months.

The predicted overspend of £33.45m for the last 12 months is still only a small proportion of the overall health and social services budget of £5,114.4m.

However, there are also historical debts across the Welsh NHS of around £84m, according to Welsh Assembly Government figures.

Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust is forecasting one of the greatest overspends, with an anticipated debt of £6.5m.

The Welsh Ambulance Service, which has suffered a turbulent 12 months with changes at the top in management and claims of crisis, is also forecasting a £6.4m debt.

Three local health boards also fared badly, with Carmarthenshire forecasting a deficit of £4.2m, Swansea an overspend of £4.468m, and Powys predicting a deficit of £3.2m.

The overall deficit figure would have passed £40m without one-off payments made to two NHS bodies.

Health Commission Wales - which has been heavily criticised for making cuts to its services - is forecasting a break even, but only due to an additional £5m payment received from the Welsh Assembly Government.

Similarly, North East Wales NHS Trust forecasts a break even position, thanks to an additional £3.2m non-recurring payment from local health boards.

The four main political parties have reacted to the news of the anticipated overspend, with Labour saying the culture of debt must be changed and the NHS had to live within its means.

But the Conservatives said Labour had been in charge for 10 years, and the situation was getting worse. "Today's debts are tomorrow's cuts," they said.

Plaid Cymru said they wanted to establish how much of the problem was down to underfunding, and how much was down to mismanagement.

They said it had to be sorted out before nursing jobs were lost.