NHS Drug 'Top Up' Plans Announced

Patients will be able to pay for medicines privately, as well as receiving National Health Service (NHS) treatment, under new plans drawn up by ministers.

Health Secretary Alan Johnson made the announcement yesterday that patients, who pay extra for 'top up' drugs, will no longer lose their right to receive NHS care. He also pledged to speed up the process of approving new drugs for use on the NHS, with the aim of minimising the number of people forced to pay for treatment.

Under current rules, people are excluded from the NHS if they pay for treatment which is not freely available. However, these regulations are not always implemented.

However, strict rules are to be introduced, meaning patients will also have to pay for staff time and the scans and blood tests associated with the extra care.

Critics of the changes believe the top-ups will create a 'two-tier' system, but the Health Minister said the old system was "cruel".

He added: "A greater range of more expensive therapies will be available to more patients on the NHS, reducing the need for them to seek private care," he said.

"A small number of patients may still choose to pay for additional drugs not available on the NHS. But I have agreed that, from today, NHS care must never be withdrawn in these cases - as long as private care takes place in a private facility."

The BMA said the announcement on co-payments offers a practical way of balancing the rights of individual patients with the values of fairness and equality on which the NHS is based. However, the BMA is still calling for a wider public debate about the scope of a publicly funded healthcare system.

Commenting on the report, Improving access to medicines for NHS patients, Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of Council at the BMA, says: "It was morally wrong that people who self-funded part of their treatment were denied their right to free NHS care and I have great sympathy for the patients and their families who find themselves facing these terrible dilemmas.

"The key challenge was always going to be to avoid the creation of a two-tier system where some NHS patients receive inferior treatment to others because they cannot afford to 'top-up'.

"Today's announcement is sensible and outlines useful measures to reduce the likelihood of this happening. The clarity that ‘top-up’ treatments will ideally need to be properly costed, provided privately and separately from NHS care, and that they will not involve NHS staff, is welcome."

Primary Care Trust's (PCT's) in each region will determine how much patients will be charged, although the NHS "should not be seen to be profiting unreasonably" from patients, the report said.

(JM)