NHS drug use requests unlikely to be affected by reviews, health bosses say

THE recommendations in two reviews into access to new medicines are unlikely to raise the number of drugs approved for use on the NHS, MSPs have been told.

H o ly r o o d ’s Health Committee has t a ken evidence on the reviews, which examined the work of the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), which approves new medicines for the NHS in Scotland, and the Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) system, used by patients to try to get drugs not approved for NHS use.

SMC chairwoman Professor Angela Timoney said the recommendations were good but concentrated on process: “Some of the concerns at the SMC are that all we are doing is putting in more processes. It probably isn’t really going to change the decisions.”

Committee convener Duncan McNeil asked David Pfleger, director of pharmacy at NHS Grampian, if the bill for prescriptions was likely to increase because of the recommendations.

Mr Pfleger said: “What we will have is, hopefully, much more responsiveness, much more transparency, much more openness, and hopefully moreperson-centredness. Does it change globally the national level of access? The rates of ‘yes’ and ‘no’ will remain unchanged from SMC.”

The two reviews were ordered by Health Secretary Alex Neil after concerns from patients and doctors.