§ Mr. Chris SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 5 March,Official Report, column 184, what assessment he has made of the funding requirements of health authorities necessary to ensure that where combination therapies of antiviral medicines are determined by clinicians as being the best response to HIV for a particular patient, there will be no financial obstacle to their prescription. [19937]
§ Mr. HoramThe Department allocates specific funding in relation to treating people with HIV and AIDS. The AIDS treatment and care budget is no longer ringfenced, and health authorities have the flexibility to move funds into HIV/AIDS from their main allocations if they so wish. The AIDS treatment budget already allows for significant costs for drug therapies and we will be monitoring the uptake and impact of combination therapies.