A new way of guarding against the NHS postcode lottery and ensuring that drugs for cancer treatment are available when needed has been introduced by an insurance company.

Policy-holders will pay an annual premium equal to their age in years, £58 at age 58, for instance. If they develop cancer, they will have access to £50,000 of treatment with drugs that are proven to be effective but are often unobtainable on the NHS.

The policy, announced by Western Provident Association (WPA), has limitations. It is available only to the under-65s, and cannot be started after cancer has been diagnosed.

People who have a parent or a brother or sister who died of cancer below the age of 60 are also excluded.

But for those who qualify, the equivalent of a tankful of petrol every year will entitle them, says WPA, to a range of new drugs including Avastin, Erbitux, Tarceva and Velcade, that are extremely hard to get through the NHS. Many people have been forced to pay for these drugs themselves, or if they cannot afford them, to do without. None is a cure, and most offer only a few months’ extra survival, but WPA expects many people to think it worthwhile paying the modest premiums to guarantee access.

Julian Stainton, chief executive of WPA, said that he viewed the new policy, called mycancerdrugs, as both a business opportunity and a challenge to the NHS.

“Cancer is no longer an inevitable death sentence” he said yesterday. Mycancerdrugs helps fund the cost of such advanced drugs where the NHS denies their use. It is now time for this sort of top-up to be available to the public.”

He insisted that such top-ups already existed in the NHS, were intended to be part of the system by its originator, Lord Beveridge, and that opposition to the idea was “authoritarian”.

Some consultants have refused to treat patients who have bought themselves supplies of cancer drugs, on the grounds that to do so would create a “two-tier” system. Others take a less ideological position.

WPA has sought the advice of a QC, Nigel Griffin, whose opinion is that there is nothing in the law to bar a patient from buying their own drugs and having them administered as part of NHS treatment.

The Scottish Executive has confirmed this view of the law, saying that there is no legislation that allows the NHS to require patients to pay for all aspects of their treatment if they opt to pay for a particular drug themselves.

Karol Sikora, a leading cancer specialist, said: “It is the doctor’s duty to find the best way forward for a patient, and this is the least inequitable way of doing it.”

In a report published on Monday, Doctors for Reform pointed out that co-payment, or top-up payments, are commonplace in the NHS and range from dentistry to prescription charges, audiology, ophthalmology and maternity services.

Cost of living

Licensed advanced cancer drugs unlikely to be prescribed on the NHS:

Alimta (pemetrexed) for treating mesothelioma and small cell lung cancer. £8,000 monthly

Velcade (bortezomib) for multiple myeloma in patients who have had at least one earlier therapy or are unsuitable for a bone marrow transplant. £3,050

Avastin (bevacizumab) for colon or rectal cancer and also used for treating age-related macular degeneration. £1,849

Erbitux (cetuximab) for colorectal and head and neck cancers. £3,685

MabCampath (alemtuzumab) for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. £9,619

Sutent (sunitinib) for kidney cancer or for gastrointestinal stromal tumours. £3,304

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