Hospital car parking
On 2 September the Scottish Government announced that car parking charges are to be scrapped in Scottish hospitals from 31 December 2008.
We will continue with our campaign to ensure that all hospitals provide free or reduced car parking for cancer patients and their prime visitors. We have had great success with this campaign in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland where parking charges have been scrapped. In England we will be taking this campaign to a local level to focus on areas where hospitals still charge excessive rates.
Prescription charges
We believe prescription charges are a tax on illness. We have been campaigning to get the Government to scrap charges in England and Northern Ireland, as they have in Wales and Scotland, (where they are being gradually phased out).
Gordon Brown has just announced that there will be free prescriptions in England for cancer patients and those with long term conditions. Read Macmillan's response to this news here.
The Northern Ireland Health Minister has just announced plans to abolish prescription charges. From January 2009 cost of prescriptions in Northern Ireland will be reduced to £3 per prescription and will be free of charge by April 2010. Find out more about this breaking news.
If you would like to take part in this campaign by writing to your MP and local paper please visit www.macmillan.org.uk/campaigns
Travel insurance
We know that people who have received a cancer diagnosis struggle to get travel insurance that covers cancer. We are working with the Association of British Insurers and other cancer charities to produce a list of providers that do cover cancer. We are also working with insurance providers to persuade them to assess risk differently, so that they offer cover to more people who have had cancer.
Exceptional patients' process
An example of an Access to Treatments campaign that Macmillan is currently working on, is making the exceptional funding process in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Local Health Boards (LHBs) more transparent to patients. We believe that patients should have all the information they want, at the appropriate time, to make choices about their treatment. We believe that PCTs and LHBs should be making their process clear and widely available to patients so that they know their rights and can increase their chances of receiving the treatment that they need. The campaign will be launched in October 2008.
Fuel poverty
A quarter of Macmillan grants are given out to go towards the cost of fuel. We want the Government to support cancer patients and prevent them from getting into fuel poverty before it is too late. We also want to work with fuel providers to ensure better use of social tariffs to support people with cancer.
We need to hear about experiences like this to help us with our Fuel Poverty campaign. If you've been affected by cancer and are struggling to pay your fuel costs. Simply email your story to campaigns@macmillan.org.uk
Working through cancer
We will continue to work with companies, encouraging them to adopt our guidance on how they should be supporting employees with cancer. We will be working with our corporate partners to pilot tool kits for employers.