NHS England and Improvement (NHSE&I) funds Specialist Cancer Pharmacists, from a wide range of hospital Trusts on a sessional basis to support the work of local Cancer Commissioners and the National Cancer Team. The majority of the NHSE&I Specialist Cancer Pharmacists are BOPA members.
The NHSE&I Specialist Cancer Pharmacists can support BOPA members with:
• advice on what treatments are commissioned
• advice on SACT related schemes such as EAMS, Compassionate Use, ILAP and Project Orbis
• any cancer commissioning enquires for example treatment break applications, clinical cases with exceptional circumstances, interpreting funding criteria and Provider letters, Blueteq queries etc.
The Specialist Cancer Pharmacists also operate via short life working groups and committees covering SACT data mapping and approvals, review and design of dose banding tables, product specifications, review and update of Blueteq forms.
Your local NHSE&I specialised commissioning offices will have the contact details for your regional Specialist Cancer Pharmacist. Contact details for the group members are also published in the Pharmacy Team section of the Cancer Drug Fund page on the FutureNHS platform. Please register with the FutureNHS website https://future.nhs.uk using your nhs.net email address, then navigate to https://future.nhs.uk/CancerDrugFundPlatform/grouphome and register with this group. BOPA members in NHS Trusts in England will find this site a valuable source of information on all aspects of the Cancer Drug Fund, including local billing and registrations.