Monday, June 23, 2008
A question of money
This morning's Western Mail reports that more than £34m of the money allocated to local health boards to pay for drugs over the last two year was unspent. They say that there are fears that this unspent money – the result of buying cheaper, non-branded drugs – could have been used to offset LHB debts:
More than half of Wales’ 22 LHBs made savings on their prescribing budgets, despite a steady increase in demand for prescription medicines.
The figures, compiled for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Cymru, come amid ongoing concern that some patients are being denied the latest, most effective medicines.
In the latest example of a postcode lottery, patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are struggling to secure funding for treatment.
Eileen Younghusband, from Sully, in the Vale of Glamorgan, has been told she will not receive Lucentis for her condition – despite the drug being available in nearby Neath Port Talbot and other parts of Wales.
Despite new treatments being approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Royal National Institute for the Blind Cymru said the criteria for treatment varies across Wales.
In some areas patients have to go blind in one eye before they can receive treatment for the other eye.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson, believes that if the LHBs had kept all of this money for drugs then much-needed treatments would not be denied to patients. She has a point, however I am not so sure that she has pinpointed the problem correctly.
After all, only a few years ago the Assembly's Health Committee was urging doctors to proscribe more generic drugs precisely to secure these sort of savings. Concerns have also been expressed about the level of debt being carried by Local Health Boards. Who can blame them for using savings to offset that debt in the face of unrelenting pressure from the Assembly Government to keep within budget?
The problem is not that LHBs have failed to ringfence drug budgets but that there is not enough money in the system. That is not to say that any government can afford to keep throwing money at the health service, they cannot. There will never be enough money to pay for everything that health professionals want.
However, there is a case to say that the Minister should be providing targeted resources for specialist drugs such as Lucentis so as to ensure that it is universally available across Wales. It is the least she can do to reward the LHBs for managing their finances so efficiently.
More than half of Wales’ 22 LHBs made savings on their prescribing budgets, despite a steady increase in demand for prescription medicines.
The figures, compiled for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Cymru, come amid ongoing concern that some patients are being denied the latest, most effective medicines.
In the latest example of a postcode lottery, patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are struggling to secure funding for treatment.
Eileen Younghusband, from Sully, in the Vale of Glamorgan, has been told she will not receive Lucentis for her condition – despite the drug being available in nearby Neath Port Talbot and other parts of Wales.
Despite new treatments being approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, Royal National Institute for the Blind Cymru said the criteria for treatment varies across Wales.
In some areas patients have to go blind in one eye before they can receive treatment for the other eye.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson, Jenny Randerson, believes that if the LHBs had kept all of this money for drugs then much-needed treatments would not be denied to patients. She has a point, however I am not so sure that she has pinpointed the problem correctly.
After all, only a few years ago the Assembly's Health Committee was urging doctors to proscribe more generic drugs precisely to secure these sort of savings. Concerns have also been expressed about the level of debt being carried by Local Health Boards. Who can blame them for using savings to offset that debt in the face of unrelenting pressure from the Assembly Government to keep within budget?
The problem is not that LHBs have failed to ringfence drug budgets but that there is not enough money in the system. That is not to say that any government can afford to keep throwing money at the health service, they cannot. There will never be enough money to pay for everything that health professionals want.
However, there is a case to say that the Minister should be providing targeted resources for specialist drugs such as Lucentis so as to ensure that it is universally available across Wales. It is the least she can do to reward the LHBs for managing their finances so efficiently.
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More to the point... what about Jenny's frequent claims that with free prescriptions the drugs budget would spiral out of control because of all those rich people who would hang around in GP surgeries so that they could get free plasters?
Seem that whinge is blown out of the water.
Seem that whinge is blown out of the water.
# posted by 
: 10:24 PM
: 10:24 PM
On the contrary the free prescriptions add to the problem. They take resources away from frontline services that might otherwise be used to pay for specialist drugs such as Lucentis.
On the contrary the free prescriptions add to the problem. They take resources away from frontline services that might otherwise be used to pay for specialist drugs such as Lucentis.
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