Hello Peacelily24

We are really sorry to hear of your situation. It's understandably a difficult time for you both. 

The best way to get information about the cost of private medical treatments is to visit private hospitals' websites and get in touch with them. All hospitals offering private treatment should be able to give you an upfront costing. Unfortunately the cost of this type of treatment is extremely expensive as you have discovered and an average cost of £10,000 a month is not unheard of. The cost of the drug itself will be set by the manufacturer but the actual cost of the treatment may vary depending where you go.

Private healthcare costs in the UK are based on several factors including hospital location so you can expect to pay 10-20% more for treatment in London for example, so it may be worth exploring hospitals in other areas of the UK. You can search for hospitals across the UK on the Private Health Information Network website. 

I’m sorry we can’t offer any more insight but I would suggest contacting the charity Bowel Cancer UK. They have an online forum similar to Cancer Chat where you might find that someone else in a similar position can offer you some helpful advice.           

I really hope your husband is able to get the treatment he needs. 

Best wishes, 
Jenn
Cancer Chat moderator 

Thanks Jenn

Hi Valerie, 

I'm so sorry to hear about your son. 

The hospital is NHS and private. For full info, we're still paying approx £9,000 every three weeks, and a horrible quirk of the system is that as soon as a patient becomes 'self-funding' for a treatment like enhertu, then they become no longer eligible for things that would normally be available on the NHS, such as the chair in which to have the chemo, the nurses time, the blood tests etc. That all has to be done privately through the private arm of the hospital. The hospital are tied to the costs of enhertu but are keen to help where possible so have arranged to have blood tests done at the local GP a day before scheduled chemo, instead of having that done 'privately' at the hospital. So that saves us around £450 every three weeks. There might be other ways to save a little bit of money here and there so definitely ask, ask and ask again as many people as possible wherever you go, to try and find out if there's anything more that can be done. 

On another note, I can't speak for my husband but enhertu has been great in terms of the side effects not being anywhere near as bad as previous lines of treatment. He is currently (touch wood, again) reacting well to it so I hope it works for your son too. 

I hope that helps in some way and best of luck to you and your family. 

Best wishes x

Thank you so much for your reply, it is extremely helpful, it is so unfair that when you try to help yourself you are penalised!

compared with what we are having to pay in Germany there wold still be a substantial saving for us & this will be worth investigating as soon as possible. I am pleased that your husband is responding & wish you both the very best of wishes for the future x

Good luck!

I am sorry to keep bothering you but would you mind explaining how you managed to get the enhertu prescribed. Was it after a consultation at the hospital & would it be too intrusive of me to ask who your consultant is. We are desperate to get this treatment in the UK as soon as we can.

No problem at all. 

My husband was a patient at the hospital after we self referred from another hospital. The oncologist prescribed after trastuzumab didn't work. So, we didn't ask for it but the oncologist recommended it. I'm not sure these forums would allow to mention specific names but the oncologist is a specialist in the gastrointestinal unit so may not be quite right anyway.?

Thank you