§ Dr. Twinnasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what progress he has made in setting up a committee to keep the selected list of drugs under review.
§ Mr. FowlerBefore the selected list of NHS drugs was introduced last April, I made clear that we would want to keep the contents of the list under regular professional review. The new advisory committee on NHS drugs, which we are today establishing, will help us to do that. The committee has been set up following consultation with the main professional bodies concerned and with the pharmaceutical industry. It contains many of the people who advised on the original selected list but it has been extended to include members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and from some other branches of the professions suggested to us.
Its terms of reference are
To advise the United Kingdom Health Ministers about the composition of Schedules 3A and 3B to the National Health Service (General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1974, and the corresponding schedules in the Regulations in Scotland and Northern Ireland (except those items which are in Schedule 3A because the Advisory Committee on 562W Borderline Substances has advised that they are not considered drugs in the circumstances of general practice) in order that drugs to meet all real clinical needs at the lowest possible cost to the National Health Service are available under the National Health Service in the following categories: mild to moderate painkillers, indigestion remedies, laxatives, cough and cold remedies, vitamins, tonics and benzodiazepine sedatives and tranquillisers.Its membership comprises:
Chairman
- Dr. Edmund Harris, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health and Social Security.
Hospital Consultants
- Mr. Norman Badham, Consultant ENT Surgeon, Leicester Royal Infirmary.
- Professor Alasdair Breckenridge, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Liverpool.
- Dr. Duncan Colin Jones, Consultant Physician (Gastroenterology), Portsmouth.
- Professor Malcolm Hodkinson, Professor of Geriatric Medicine, London.
- Professor Eric Stroud, Professor of Child Health, London.
- Professor Malcolm Lader, Professor of Psychopharmacology, London.
- Dr. James Moore, Consultant Anaesthetist, Belfast.
General Practitioners
- Dr. John Callander, General Practitioner, Scotland.
- Dr. Stuart Carne, General Practitioner, London.
- Dr. John Lynch, General Practitioner, North Wales.
- Dr. David Smith, General Practitioner, Northallerton.
Pharmacists
- Dr. David Ganderton, Professor of Pharmaceutics (designate), King's College, London.
- Mr. David Coleman, Retail Pharmacist, Norwich.
Dentist
- Professor Roderick Cawson, Head of Oral Medicine and Pathology, Guy's Hospital, London.
The Committee will have an important part to play in ensuring that the selected list is kept up to date — by considering new drugs which become available and whether those on the list still represent the best value for money — and in dealing with any concerns which arise about the operating of the list itself. The Committee will have its first meeting on 23 July and among its first priorities will be to look at products, such as mucolytics, on which representations have already been made.
I am grateful to those who have agreed to serve on the Committee for their help in this important task.