Dementia
Health
Oliver Colvile (Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what measures he has put in place to ensure consistency among GP commissioning boards in different areas when prescribing medicines for people with dementia.
Norman Lamb (North Norfolk, Liberal Democrat)
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued technology appraisal guidance in March 2011 that recommends three drugs, donepezii, galantamine, and rivastigmine, as options for the management of mild to moderate dementia, and a fourth drug, memantine, for the management of severe dementia. Primary care trusts are legally required by a direction from the Secretary of State for Health to make funding available to enable clinicians to prescribe treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisal guidance within three months of publication of final guidance. The Government have committed to ensuring that national health service commissioners will continue to be required to make funding available for drugs and treatments recommended by NICE technology appraisals. Decisions on the prescribing of drugs for the treatment of individual patients with dementia are made by clinicians.