Rationing is essential in tax-funded health systems
Editorial in this weeks Lancet on NICE (in England and Wales and not UK). Available freely on line to registered users
Best wishes
David McDaid
LSE Health and Social Care
Rationing is essential in tax-funded health systems
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673606695792/fulltext
The Lancet 2006; 368:1394
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69579-2
It has become lamentably commonplace for decisions made by the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to be greeted with public outrage. It therefore comes as little surprise that the Institute's Oct 11 rejection of five appeals against its guidance restricting the use of four drugs for Alzheimer's disease <http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=373237>-donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine, and memantine-has been branded "blatant cost cutting" by the Alzheimer's Society <http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/News_and_Campaigns/News/10102006nice_says_no.htm>. But this reaction says less about NICE's decision-making processes-which are commendably rigorous-than about the gulf between patient expectations of the UK's tax-funded health system, and understanding about the necessity for rational spending.......
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