Press release: NHS Confederation comment on NICE Herceptin ruling

09 Jun 2006

Dr Gill Morgan, chief executive of the NHS Confederation which represents over 90 per cent of NHS organisations, said:

"NHS organisations will welcome the clarity that today's announcement from NICE on the use of Herceptin for early stage breast cancer brings. We have always said that the licensing and regulatory processes are there to ensure that new drugs are both safe and effective as well as to protect patients.

"However, there is no doubt that this will present a significant financial challenge to some NHS organisations. Primary care trusts plan their expenditure some 18 months in advance and so when a new and expensive drug is licensed, and no new funding provided, it inevitably causes difficulties.

"PCTs receive a fixed allocation of money to deliver all the services for their local community and have to take difficult decisions on competing priorities. For example, this year many PCTs have been faced with decisions about spending money on expensive drugs, cutting waiting lists and investing in infertility treatment.

"Every decision about spending taxpayer's money is a moral one because a pound spent on one drug means a pound less for another. There will always be a finite amount of money and difficult decisions will always need to be taken. We strongly believe that those decisions are best made by clinicians and trusts locally."

ENDS

 

Notes for editors

1. The NHS Confederation represents more than 90 per cent of the organisations that make up the NHS. Its members include the majority of NHS acute trusts, ambulance trusts, foundation trusts, mental health trusts, primary care trusts, special health authorities and strategic health authorities in England; trusts and local health boards in Wales; and health and social service trusts and boards in Northern Ireland. 
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