§ 17. Mr. Graham Brady (Altrincham and Sale, West)If he will make a statement on the availability of erythropoetin for patients suffering from anaemia and chronic renal failure.[102278]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)Decisions about the provision of erythropoetin should be based on the clinical needs of individual patients. There are, however, no national guidelines or protocols issued by the Department of Health specifically on prescribing erythropoetin.
§ Mr. BradyI thank the Minister for his reply. If my constituents reside in the Salford and Trafford health authority area and are told by the Manchester royal infirmary that they have a clinical need for erythropoetin, they are denied it as a matter of course. However, if they live across the border in the Manchester health authority area, they will receive it. The Secretary of State says that he wants to end the lottery of care, so will the Minister now undertake to do that?
§ Mr. HuttonI am aware of the particular concerns that the hon. Gentleman has raised and to which the Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham), replied in February. My understanding is that the local health authority and the trust are working to establish a proper mechanism for prescribing erythropoetin, and I very much hope that an understanding will be reached soon. I think that there was a meeting yesterday to discuss the matter.
666 The hon. Gentleman raised a wider point that several other Conservative Members have mentioned today. Again, I point out that such problems of availability did not start on 1 May 1997. The difference between the Government whom he supported and this Government is that we have put in place a fairer system of resolving the issues and it will address the concerns of his constituents. I hope that he will recognise that additional resources have been made available to his health authority to date. However, sadly, he conspicuously failed to mention that.