ABPI questions whether NICE is working as it should
ABPI’s Richard Barker questioned how NICE interacts with the
health system |
Postcode prescribing in the NHS continues because of failure in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence's interactions with the health system, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry argued last week.
Speaking at a media event, Richard Barker, director general of the ABPI,
said that inequality in access to medicines is a result, not of NICE’s
systems, but of its interactions. “NICE was set up to try to tackle
and resolve the issue of inequality in the use of medicines and inequality
in the use of clinical procedures and patient pathways and operations.
But it seems to have failed to do that, not probably because of its own
internal processes, but because of the way it interacts with the health
system,” he said. “Maybe it’s time to take a step back
and say ‘how is it working and is it achieving what it set out
to achieve?’,” he suggested.
Dr Barker also addressed the problem of primary care trusts refusing
to fund treatments before they are approved by NICE. “You cannot
blame the PCTs wholly because there is not a mechanism by which they
think ahead,” he said. PCTs need to plan the receipt of new medicines
and ensure not only that the money to fund the treatments is available,
but that the facilities to provide them are up and running as well, he
said.
The ABPI is working with national cancer director Mike Richards on this
problem as it relates to new oncology medicines, Dr Barker added.
He emphasised that building in capacity to deal with new medicines is
crucial, but also suggested that a national fund could help break down
the barriers which block patients’ access to expensive new medicines.
“If we could devise somehow with the government a top-up fund — who
knows, I am speculating — some way of making sure that new medicines
did not hit this barrier when they came in, particularly in areas like
cancer, then we would,” he said.
“Clearly we have got to do something. Nobody is satisfied with
the situation as it is,” he added. |
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