HL Deb 18 February 1991 vol 526 cc308-9

2.58 p.m.

Lord Campbell of Croy asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether arrangements are being made in the National Health Service in England, Scotland and Wales, to make Erythropoietin available to patients with kidney failure for whom there is no alternative treatment.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, like other new treatments, Erythropoietin is being introduced progressively across the health service. National Health Service funding is increased to take account of such new treatments. It is for each region to assess its patients' requirements for the drug and to make appropriate plans to ensure that that need is met.

Lord Campbell of Croy

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for her Answer. Recognising that this is an effective new drug which is also expensive, are the Government giving advice, through the respective departments of health, on priorities for its use?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, no. As always, prescribing is a matter for the clinical judgment of the doctor concerned.

Lord Ennals

My Lords, is the Minister saying that in one case it was a decision of the doctor concerned to stop a number of patients on renal dialysis from receiving that drug? Will she say who it was who took the decision and how many patients were denied that drug while still on renal dialysis?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, I should be grateful if the noble Lord could furnish me with further details of that case.

Baroness Masham of Ilion

My Lords, is the Minister aware that this drug makes people feel so much better that they can go back to work when they have been away through illness? Does she agree that its use would be cost-effective?

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, clearly the evidence is that the effects of the drug are extremely beneficial to the quality of life of people with kidney problems. However, as with renal services as a whole, we believe that health authorities are not only sufficiently responsible but are also best placed to decide what is needed. Over the lifetime of the Government real resources for renal services in hospital and community health care for the whole country have increased by about 30 per cent.

Lord Campbell of Croy

My Lords, have the Government taken into account the clinical trials in a Dundee hospital which demonstrated that a relapse can occur when the drug is withdrawn from patients? That may be the case to which the noble Lord, Lord Ennals, referred. I understand that it was a deliberate clinical trial.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, it appears that that was the case to which the noble Lord, Lord Ennals, referred. I understand that patients given Erythropoietin will always relapse if the product is withdrawn because it is a synthetic hormone, replacing one naturally deficient in patients. However, patients who participated in the Scottish clinical trials will continue to be provided with the treatment.

Lord McColl of Dulwich

My Lords, will my noble friend agree that the total bill for the drug to each district health authority amounts to only £70,000 per year? As this is such an important advance, surely it is up to the local and regional health authorities to make sure that the drug is given?

Baroness Hooper

Yes, my Lords; my noble friend points to the practice of leaving the decision to the medical profession.

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