Health: NICE

Lord Turnberg Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend is, as ever, on the case. My officials in the Department of Health are in active discussions with their counterparts in each of the devolved Administrations on the kinds of changes that we envisage to the pricing of medicines.

[Lord Turnberg]

Does the Minister agree that to devolve responsibility for prescribing expensive drugs to GPs faces them with a very difficult ethical dilemma? Should they prescribe a very expensive drug, costing thousands of pounds, with only marginal benefit for the heart-rending patient with cancer facing them, knowing that to do so may prevent them from funding 20 or 30 patients requiring eye operations or hip replacements or drugs for schizophrenia, or should they refuse that treatment? Have the Government thought through the implications of devolving the cost-benefit analysis that NICE does so well?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I think the noble Lord has perhaps misunderstood the purpose of the plans that we have set out. Prior to the introduction of value-based pricing, we will continue to ensure that the NHS funds drugs that have been positively appraised by NICE. I hope that that reassures him that clinicians are not going to be placed in an awkward position. We will be consulting on our plans for value-based pricing before the end of the year, but I can assure the House that the point of moving to a new pricing system is to increase patient access to new effective drugs. That is what we aim to do.