Cancer
Health
Written answers and statements, 5 November 2009
John Baron (Whip, Whips; Billericay, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish the full response of his Department to the report by the Rarer Cancers Forum entitled Off limits, published on 14 August 2009; what assessment his Department has made of the implications for his Department's policies of the recommendations of the report; what steps he is taking to assist NHS organisations in making decisions on the funding of off-label treatments for (a) cancer and (b) other conditions; and if he will make a statement.
Mike O'Brien (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; North Warwickshire, Labour)
We have made no such response. To help primary care trusts (PCTs) improve the quality of their decision-making on the funding of drugs and treatments, including off-label treatments, where there is no positive National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance, we have commissioned a number of measures to support the introduction of improved local processes:
a set of public-facing principles to inform PCT decision-making was published in January 2009 available at:
www.npc.co.uk/policy/local/guiding_principles.htm
a set of Directions to PCTs making explicit their public law responsibilities for putting in place processes for making decisions on new drugs and treatments, came into force on
www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsLegislation/DH_096067
a handbook of good practice guidance for the national health service was published in March 2009, covering both funding policies on new drugs and processes for considering individual funding requests available at:
www.npc.co.uk/policy/local/constitution_handbook.htm
and
strategic health authorities have been asked to review the way in which PCTs in their area collaborate to support effective decision-making on new drugs.
In addition, the National Prescribing Centre has embarked on a major programme of work to provide support and a bespoke and continuing training package for key PCT staff, to help ensure that local processes are able to develop in the way we want.