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NICE may fail to stop "postcode prescribing," MPs told

2002; BMJ; Volume: 324; Issue: 7331 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/bmj.324.7331.191a

0959-8138

Kelly Burke,

Child and Adolescent Health

Official efforts to reduce “postcode prescribing” could backfire, because health authorities are being made to fund certain treatments at the expense of others, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. Medical and legal experts told the Commons health select committee last week that the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) could—contrary to its aims—make prescribing more inconsistent by skewing healthcare priorities. Ike Iheanacho, representing the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin , warned that cash strapped health authorities may have to downgrade care in important areas to channel money into interventions approved by NICE. “Health authorities will have to cut their cloth to fit,” said Mr Iheanacho, the journal's deputy editor. “If the cost of implementing a whole batch of NICE guidance means they don't have enough money left and if …