§ Lord Aveburyasked Her Majesty's Government:
(a) what is their policy on providing funds for revascularisation procedures; (b) whether they achieved the target of 3,000 extra procedures by April 2002 set in March 2000 by paragraph 61 of the National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease; (c) what further increase is now planned; and (d) whether they consider that, pending the 2003 review by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, interim advice should be offered to hospitals on the use of drug eluting stents in the light of the preliminary results of the SIRIUS clinical trials in the United States and the RAVEL trials in Europe and Latin America. [HL4904]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathThe Government's policy on funding for coronary heart disease (CHD) is set out in its NHS Plan, published July 2000, a copy of which is available in the Library.
The National Service Framework for CHD published in March 2000 set an immediate priority that by April 2002 the total number of revascularisation procedures, over the 1999–2000 baseline, would increase by 3,000. More than 8,000 extra procedures had been carried out by April 2002.
Future plans are based on reducing waiting times for heart operations. By April 2002, no patient had been waiting more than 12 months for revascularisation. The NHS Plan targets are for a maximum six-month 59WA wait for surgery by 2005 and a three-month maximum wait by 2008.
It would not be appropriate for the Department of Health to pre-empt the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) by issuing interim guidance. The absence of guidelines from NICE does not prevent the NHS using new drugs or technologies. Standing guidance to the NHS (Health Service Circular 1999/176) asks NHS bodies to continue with local arrangements for the managed introduction of new technologies where guidance from NICE is not available at the time the new technology first becomes available.