Tories continue campaign for cancer drugs fund in Wales

England's cancer drugs fund has reduced the number of therapies covered from 84 to just 41 this year

The Conservatives will keep demanding a cancer drugs fund in Wales, despite it being scaled back in England.

The policy will appear in the party's 2016 assembly election manifesto, Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies said.

Since 2011 England's cancer drugs fund has set aside money for more expensive therapies, but the number of treatments covered has more than halved this year.

Welsh Labour ministers have consistently said they have no plans to introduce such a fund.

Their refusal to make cash available for treatments not routinely available under the NHS has been strongly criticised by the Conservatives.

The policy was introduced in England under the former coalition government in Westminster.

Mr Davies said: "We don't move at all from our position of providing a cancer drugs fund here in Wales and we will be delivering that in our manifesto at the assembly elections."

Patients in Wales can apply for funding if the treatment their doctor recommends is not routinely available, through the Individual Patient Funding Request (IPFR) system.

Welsh ministers say the system is fair because it is open to patients with all kinds of conditions, not just cancer.