A question to the HA, phrased under the NHS COde of Openness, should be
met by a suitably detailed reply including the minutes of the relevant
meetings...
In N&E Devon there are several prescribing advisory ctees, which IME
mix quite good colletion and use of evidence to support easy decisions
with inept and cowardly vacillation on difficult decisions[1], and
self-serving shading of evidence on cost-saving choices[2].
One clear inadequacy in the process is that budgets can clearly only be
set of existing treatments - so that if a new and effective treatment
is intorduced after a budget is set then it should be funded from a
reserve set aside for that purpose. I await an answer to the simple
question I asked some time ago on what the average cost in recent years
from new treatments introduced in that year has been, because this
would indicate the amount that shuld be set aside.
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[1] not that this should be taken as a criticism of N&E in particular,
since the entire political and administrative and I regret to say much
of the medical establishment screwed up badly over the last such
example.
[2] not that this should be taken as a criticism of N&E in particular,
since the entire political and administrative and I regret to say a
significant fraction of general practice is prone to the same
contortions as it reaches for its wallet.
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