THE Welsh Government has hit back at claims it is “misleading’’ people over the amount of money it spends on cancer patients.

Health Minister Lesley Griffiths has faced growing calls from rivals in the past few weeks for Wales to have a dedicated fund for special drugs to combat the disease.

Last year the UK government launched a £200 million Cancer Drugs Fund for England aimed at re-addressing the “poor record’’ of treatment when compared with the rest of Europe.

Mrs Griffiths has argued Wales does not need a similar fund as already it spends around £4.50 more per patient than in England.

However, the Welsh Liberal Democrats said their research showed that figure was around only 47p more – and accused the Welsh Labour government of getting its figures wrong.

But the Welsh Government denied such suggestions, and insisted it was still spending more money on cancer per person than was being done across the Severn Bridge.

A spokesman said: “We did not include the £200 million Cancer Drugs Fund in our 2010-2011 calculations because the fund did not exist then.

“But even with the introduction of the £200 million fund in 2011-12, only £50 million of this was actually spent.

“This will close the gap between England and Wales by only around 45p.

“So England will still not ’’catch up” with the already higher figure Wales was spending per head on cancer care.’’ The spokesman also added out of the 24 drugs featured in the Cancer Drugs Fund, 16 had been used in Wales – and the remaining eight had yet to be requested by patients.