PCTs given £17m cancer immunisation fund
The Department of Health is accelerating the funding in order that 13-18 year old girls can have the jab protecting against human papillomavirus, a virus that causes cervical cancer.
Phases
The HPV vaccination has been available to 12-13 year olds since September, and the original plan was to roll it out to other age groups gradually.
Sixth-formers were to be offered the vaccine in the 2009-10 school year, followed by 15-17 year olds in 2010-11.
The decision to make the funding available now has been made in light of figures showing that 70 per cent of 12-13 year olds have already had their first of three vaccinations, with the numbers expected to rise.
In 24 areas, there has been an uptake of at least 90 per cent, while 124 PCTs are already giving girls their second dose of HPV.
Saving lives
Health minister Dawn Primarolo said: “This vaccination programme is about saving lives.
“I want to thank the local health teams, schools, girls and parents for making this programme such a success.
“Next year we'll be investing more money so trusts can bring forward their catch-up programmes to cover 13-17 year old girls.
“This means that girls can be offered protection against cervical cancer earlier.”
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Readers' comments (2)
Anonymous | 23-Dec-2008 5:04 pm
£17m divided by 124 trusts. Unless my maths is rubbish, that's only £137,096 per Trust. Looking at the record keeping + nursing costs / management costs doesn't look any way near enough!
Just another attention grabbing headline which again doesn't add up!
But then we see the return of top slices and then ask pcts to plan 5 years in advance...... As before the NHS is a one year organisation, financially a joke which is starting to wear thin!!
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Anonymous | 29-Dec-2008 2:01 pm
Just raises more questions… Is it enough? Has it been costed properly (or has someone rolled the dice!)? Is this really new funding or will NHS organisations be expected to find it within their current budgets? Will it be ring fenced funding?
Yep, another empty political headline!
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