What are we doing to reduce health inequalities?
The COVID-19 pandemic underlined existing health inequalities, including those faced by people from minority ethnic backgrounds, and highlighted the differences in access to care across the UK. We know this impacts people’s experiences of treatment and care, and ultimately their health outcomes.
We want everyone to have the equal access to the best care possible.
That’s why we’re working hard to understand the scale, and the nature, of the problem. We’re also working across Anthony Nolan to:
- Diversify the register with more donors from minority ethnic backgrounds
- Grow the UK cord blood bank and help clinical teams to be more confident with the use of cord blood for transplant
- Work with international registers to broaden the pool of potential donors
- Support access to new treatments
Understanding barriers
To understand the barriers to equitable access to treatment and care facing patients, we conducted research to further our understanding.
As the Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Stem Cell Transplantation, we launched an inquiry into the barriers different patients face because of their background. Among other factors, this included ethnicity, socio-economic status and where people live in the country.
Read our full report: No Patient Left Behind: The Barriers Patients Face When Accessing Treatment and Care APPG Inquiry Report
Our Policy and Public Affairs team works with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which is responsible for providing guidance on treatments and health technologies for the NHS. We provide evidence of patient experiences and views to NICE and attend Committee hearings to explain the impact potential treatments could have for patients. Ensuring the patient voice is heard in discussions, we help influence better access to drugs and treatments on the NHS.
How have we influenced NICE?
Exa-cel
We worked with the Sickle Cell Society to help the sickle community access new and innovative treatments which address their needs and reduce health inequalities, such as the new gene therapy exa-cel.
Ruxolitinib
We've supported a Health Technology Appraisal for ruxolitinib, a treatment for patients with acute graft versus host disease (aGvHD).
Treosulfan
In this blog, we explain the role we played in a Health Technology Appraisal for treosulfan, a drug used in the pre-transplant conditioning of patients.
Letermovir
Find out how we influenced the Health Technology Appraisal regarding letermovir, a drug used to prevent serious illness from the CMV virus in stem cell transplant patients.