States buys time to think how to pay for Nice TAs
Supplying hundreds of local patients with a wider range of drugs and devices available on the National Health Service is expected to cost the States about £6m. next year.
The previous Assembly agreed to expand the list funded by the States after Deputy Peter Roffey led a campaign for Bailiwick patients to have access to the same advanced medicines as UK patients.
Deputies agreed yesterday to continue funding the expanded list of treatments, although some drugs and devices provided on the NHS will remain unavailable to States-funded patients until the Assembly agrees a method of paying for them from 2026 onwards, which would cost millions of pounds more.
Health & Social Care, which had commissioned an independent review of the current approach to funding, advised the States that more than 90% of money spent on the treatments, which are known as Nice TAs, assisted patients with cancer, rheumatology conditions or eye problems.
HSC president Al Brouard said nearly 150 new Nice TAs had been made available to local patients in the first two years of the programme, benefitting more than 800 people.
‘The service users in receipt of this medication have reported to the committee, through Carewatch, that they were able to feel hopeful and make plans and enjoy everyday pastimes, continue to have a rewarding role in family life through providing care to grandchildren, or participate in charity work,’ said Deputy Brouard.
Several States members were concerned about the cost of moves to expand the funding programme in the years ahead.
‘There are increasingly good technology and drugs becoming available, but for us as a small jurisdiction we need to re-think the way in which we fund these things,’ said Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq.
‘All it takes is for numbers to increase by a few and suddenly we have several million more we have to find in one year.
‘If we’re going to prioritise this, we may need to re-prioritise other things, or look at a new form of insurance scheme for secondary healthcare.’
But some members were unimpressed by concerns about cost.
‘Sometimes in life you can’t talk about money. Let’s not concentrate on money. This is about life. There’s a lot of people in the Foulon who would love to be us today,’ said Deputy Liam McKenna.
HSC’s proposals were adopted with only two votes against.
The committee will report back to the States with information about the cost of expanding the Nice TA programme from 2026 onwards.
