Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, for what reasons fentanyl has been classified as a low priority for funding.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended that Immediate Release (IR) Fentanyl should not be offered as a first-line fast acting pain relief and NHS England’s clinical working group considered that the current high prescribing volumes were not justified given the small number of patients for whom IR fentanyl would be appropriate, namely those suffering from cancer.

The clinical working group considered therefore that more cost effective products were available for those patients being prescribed the drug who were not cancer patients. Their guidance does not class IR Fentanyl as a low priority for funding. It clarifies the circumstances in which it should be prescribed.

However, where there is an absence of final guidance recommendations from NICE, decisions on the funding of a licensed treatment on the National Health Service are taken by the relevant clinician and commissioner (such as NHS England or individual clinical commissioning groups) based on the individual needs of the patient.