§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the health authorities in England providing funding for anti-TNF therapy for people with rheumatoid arthritis; and if he will make a statement. [136877]
§ Dr. LadymanInformation is not held centrally on which primary care trusts are prescribing these drugs. The use of anti-TNF drugs in the community is 791W negligible, but they are used extensively in hospitals. When the National Institute for Clinical Excellence issued guidance on these drugs in March 2002, they recommended that consultant rheumatologists, or consultant paediatric rheumatologists in the case of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, should prescribe them. Information is not held centrally about drugs prescribed and dispensed in hospitals.
Information is available on the number of prescription items of drugs that are dispensed in the community in England. Details of these anti-TNF drugs (contained in the British National Formulary paragraph 10.1.3) are included in the Prescription Cost Analysis publication, which can be accessed at www.doh.gov.uk/prescriptionstatistics/index.htm.