APC policy

Policy of the Pan Mersey Area Prescribing Committee

Secretary of State Directions (Department of Health, 2009) provide the NHS with clear and concise requirements that must be adopted to ensure compliance with the constitutional statements. To ensure patients have access to medicines and treatments that are recommended for use in the NHS through a NICE TA process, funding must be made available. This was re-emphasised in 2011: “Clinicians should be empowered to use these medicines and treatments where they consider their patients would benefit and local processes for pro-active adoption of NICE recommended medicines into local formularies should be in place”. (Innovation Health and Wealth – accelerating adoption and diffusion in the NHS. Department of Health, December 2011)

You have the right to drugs and treatments that have been recommended by NICE for use in the NHS if your doctor says they are clinically appropriate for you.

NHS Constitution 2013

Healthcare commissioners have a statutory responsibility to ensure that care, including medicines and treatments, is commissioned within available resources (Department of Health, 2010). In order to secure the best value healthcare and the greatest health benefit for their populations, commissioners need to prioritise the allocation of limited resources and balance demands for medicines and treatments against a number of considerations. Commissioners may not always be able to fund all the care that is practically possible.

You have the right to expect local decisions on funding of other drugs and treatments to be made rationally following a proper consideration of the evidence. If the local NHS decides not to fund a drug or treatment you and your doctor feel would be right for you, they will explain that decision to you.

NHS Constitution 2013

The Pan Mersey Area Prescribing Committee supports a coordinated approach to managing medicines by its key constituent organisations. The overall aim is to take a health economy approach to the commissioning and use of medicines in primary and secondary care, linking with tertiary and specialist provision. This document describes the framework by which this process will take place in a consistent, predictable, open and transparent manner.