§ 14. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)What action he is taking to ensure that patients are represented during the deliberations of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. [127523]
§ The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Denham)The National Institute for Clinical Excellence is responsible for determining its own processes. However, NICE invites submissions from relevant patient groups and offers them the opportunity to comment on draft conclusions of its guidance. There is also patient or lay representation on all of NICE's key committees, including the appraisal committee, the guidelines committee and the appeals panel.
§ Mr. BercowI am grateful to the Minister for that reply. However, given that, on his own admission, patients are not directly represented on NICE, will he confirm that NICE's assessment of the cost-effectiveness of beta interferon has taken full account of the costs of home care, domestic adaptations, welfare payments and tax revenues forgone when individuals who are clinically suitable for the drug are denied it? Will the Minister also confirm that the institute will publish in full its findings on those important considerations?
§ Mr. DenhamI think the House and the hon. Gentleman will understand that the Government will not comment on a leak of a draft appraisal—there is some way to go before the full appraisal is published. Publication will occur possibly in August, depending on whether there is an appeal. In general terms, I can say that NICE will receive whatever evidence manufacturers, patient groups or others wish to give about the wider social costs that should be taken into account, and the way in which that should be done.
159 NICE is certainly required to consider the costs and impact on the NHS and personal social services expenditure. On publication, it is for NICE to determine the way in which it publishes its guidance. On past performance, NICE normally sets out clearly the assessment it has made of the evidence and the way in which it has reached its conclusions. I therefore have no reason at this stage to believe that this case will be any different.
§ Dr. Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes, South-West)Will my hon. Friend confirm that when NICE makes its assessment of drugs and treatments, it takes into account patients' views on the way in which those treatments or drugs have improved their quality of life as well as abated 160 their symptoms, but that that evidence must be subject to the same rigorous scientific assessment? That would avoid the clouding that the placebo effect provides.
§ Mr. DenhamMy hon. Friend makes an important point. It is obviously essential that NICE's decisions and conclusions command confidence, not only among clinicians but among patients. That is why NICE invites patients' organisations to give evidence. I am sure that those organisations put forward the views of individual patients as well as their assessment of the scientific evidence. However, it is for NICE to determine the methodology that it wants to use, and to reach a conclusion about the evidence, its form and the weight it wishes to give it. I am sure that it gives great weight to properly validated scientific evidence.