Nhs Constitution And Local Decisions On Funding Of Drugs And Treatments

EDM number 1943 in 2007-08, proposed by Ian Gibson on 02/07/2008.
Categorised under the topics of Health finance, Medicine and Patient rights and complaints.

That this House welcomes the proposed patient right in the draft NHS Constitution to expect local decisions on funding of drugs and treatments which have not been approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to be made rationally and for decisions to be transparent; is pleased to see the Government's commitment to requiring primary care trusts (PCTs) to put in place clear and transparent arrangements for making local decisions including for exceptional funding requests; welcomes the requirement for PCTs to publish how these processes work and hopes that this will mean PCTs will publish such information on their websites; further welcomes the announcement that the Government will work with PCTs to develop a set of principles to inform PCTs in such decision-making and hopes that these principles will include guidance on how exceptional funding requests should be heard, who should sit on decision-making panels and what patients should be able to expect from the process; hopes that provision will be made to provide support and guidance to patients throughout the process; further welcomes the announcement of investment in guidance and support for PCTs to put these principles in action; requests that the Government considers centrally collecting data on the number and outcome of exceptional funding requests; and calls on the Government to implement these proposals as soon as possible.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs.