Scottish team discovers how the NHS could save millions

● Detailed analysis recommends UV light therapy for skin conditions

Treating severe skin conditions with UV light rather than creams, pills and injections could save the NHS millions of pounds while improving results, according to a study by Dundee University.

A team led by Dr John Foerster from the university’s school of medicine, found the annual cost per patient of filtered UV light treatment, known as phototherapy, was around £250 - one-sixth of the cost attributed to phototherapy by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and a fraction of the estimated £7-12,000 annual cost of injectable biologic therapies.

Dr Foerster said health boards could save more than £1 million annually by improving availability of UV therapy.

Steroid creams are frequently prescribed for skin diseases but can cause serious side effects and can prove inadequate controlling conditions such as psoriasis and eczema.

Patientsmaythenbereferred for more intensive treatment, which could include pills, injections or UV light which are more expensive than using the UV from the start.

The team previously showed three-quarters of patients had significant improvements after phototherapy and the need for steroid creams was reduced by 25 per cent.

Access to phototherapy

0 Scientists say UV therapy could save the NHS £1 million annually across the UK is largely a “postcode lottery”, though Scotland is relatively well served.

Dr Foerster and his colleagues examined the costs involved in delivering phototherapy at sites in city, large town, small town and rural settings.

In addition to breaking down the staff costs of those actually delivering the treatment, they also factored in expenses relating to administration, training, pensions, medical physics, equipment, depreciation and consultant supervision.

Dr Foerster, whose research was published online by the British Journal of Dermatology, said: “A shortfall of much health economics research is number-juggling is very often not representative of real life.

“To overcome this, we looked at four very different sites over nine years. We made no assumptions and detailed every penny spent.

“We itemised every staff member, every percentage of their job plan dedicated to phototherapy and could see the health board spent only an average of £257 for an entire treatment course over the last nine years.

“That is phenomenally cheap because when phototherapy clinics are set up they are very efficient operations.

“When new therapies are assessed by NICE or the Scottish Medical Consortium, they look at not just how beneficial these are to patients but also how economical they are.

“The NICE appraisal puts the cost of phototherapy at £1800 per treatment.”