17 September 2015 - A fund set up by the Government to pay for potentially life-saving drugs that have yet to be approved by the NHS rationing body is ‘unsustainable’, officials have warned.

Despite helping 74,000 patients in the last five years, the Cancer Drugs Fund exceeded its budget by 50 per cent this year.

It was initially allocated an annual sum of £200million but demand has been so high that a total of £416million was spent in 2014/15.

NHS England, which controls the fund, has since had to remove dozens of treatments from the list of those routinely provided in an attempt to cut back on costs.

But today’s report by the National Audit Office warns that the system will have to change because the NHS cannot afford to pay for all the drugs needed by patients.

Officials are due to announce a review of the fund in the next few weeks which may lead to it only being used to pay for drugs on a short-term basis which are awaiting approval by the NHS rationing body NICE.

For more details, go to: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3237627/Cancer-drugs-fund-not-sustainable-exceeding-budget-50.html