§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will now ban the use of amphetamines by National Health Service doctors who work in slimming clinics, in the light of the evidence taken by the General Medical Council that one Harley Street clinic used five million unit doses in 1970, amounting to one-seventh of the total of this drug used in that year by the National Health Service.
§ Mr. AlisonAmphetamines have a use, albeit a restricted one, in medicine. A ban would be harmful to patients who genuinely need these drugs for effective therapy, and we prefer to rely on the voluntary restraints which the medical 377W profession is applying to their use. The clinic referred to was not operating under the National Health Service.
§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is his estimate of the cost to the National Health Service of five million unit doses of the drug amphetamine.
§ Mr. AlisonThe net ingredient cost of five million amphetamine sulphate tablets, 5mg, is £4,500.