MPs said a more streamlined, faster system of assessing drug treatments was needed; a Commons committee said NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) should have a more 'rough and ready' approach. NICE was set up to make recommendations to the NHS about which treatments should be made available by assessing their cost-effectiveness. NHS trusts were shown in a report to focus on the expensive treatments rather than cheaper, effective drugs that could be prescribed via GPs.
New treatments are generally only used if they are under £30 000 for each year of good health they provide (QALY)- no scientific basis to the threshold.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7179699.stm
Researchers say that the current method of deciding on which drugs should be funded, is 'flawed'.
Assumptions of the system used by NICE was tested by the a study funded by The European Commission.
NICE uses QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Years) to assess the value of new drug treatments: this looks at the costs and how much someone's life would be improved and extended. After a questionnaire, the QALY system was criticised for grading different states of health- saying that people varied in their views about the impacts of different illnesses and disabilities as well as their approach to risk. 71% would prefer to live 15 years in a wheelchair than die after 5-10 years in a wheelchair, but the remaining 29% said they would rather die earlier than spending 15 years in a wheelchair.
There was a conclusion that the system failed to reflect varying views on disability and illness. However, NICE opposed the study by calling it limited and ensured that their system was the best.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21170445
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