MBC Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland does not run its own appraisal of new cancer medicines. As we have put it when writing about drug access, NICE evaluates new treatments for the NHS in England, "with Wales and Northern Ireland usually following their decisions".

Usually, and afterwards. That gap is the whole problem. A decision made in England is not a decision made here until it is implemented here, and for someone with metastatic breast cancer the wait between the two is not administrative — it is time on a treatment that is working, or not on it.

What we have asked for

When NICE approved tucatinib for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in February 2022, England and Wales joined Scotland in providing it. We wrote at the time that we "now call on Northern Ireland to follow and implement this NICE guidance without delay", and that all patients across the UK who could benefit from these treatments should be able to access them. Our post

The same pattern held for Trodelvy: approved for NHS Scotland in March 2022, then in England, with Wales and Northern Ireland "normally following decisions by NHS England". #TrodelvyNow

This is what we mean when we say the postcode you live at changes your treatment. It is not a figure of speech.

We need people here

Northern Ireland is where METUPUK is thinnest on the ground, and this page is honest about that. We have far more written about what happens to patients here than we have members here telling us about it.

If you are living with metastatic breast cancer in Northern Ireland — or you are a clinical nurse specialist, an oncologist, or a family member — we would like to hear from you. That includes if a treatment approved elsewhere in the UK has not reached you.

Email metupuk@gmail.com, or join us.

More on how drug decisions are made across the UK: Improving access to new breast cancer drugs · Research and access to drugs