Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to direct NHS England to ensure that when patients are (1) currently prescribed, and (2) previously prescribed, Armour Thyroid medicine for the treatment of hypothyroidism, their GP should be permitted to continue to prescribe the medicine.

Prescribers must ensure that the medicines considered appropriate for their patients can be safely prescribed and take account of the appropriate national guidance on clinical effectiveness and the local commissioning decisions of their respective integrated care boards.

The National Institute for Health and Care and Excellence recommends that natural thyroid or armour thyroid extract should not be offered for the management of primary hypothyroidism due to insufficient evidence that it offers greater benefits than levothyroxine.