recent posts

Department of Health publishes guidance on exceptional cases processes
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Department of Health has published Defining Guiding Principles for Processes supporting Local Decision Making about Medicines. The document points out that at present the only national guidance on decision making on medicines is developed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and covers a specified range of products and indications. National guidance for decision making on medicines that have not been appraised by NICE has been confined to general commissioning support and is not specific to medicines. Because there has been no national framework, local priority decisions have led to variations in responses between PCTs. The purpose of these Guiding Principles is to "improve the consistency and quality of local decision making on medicines and to reassure patients that there will be a common, rational framework within which such decisions should be made". ....read DH guidleines here

Rarer Cancers Forum carried out an audit of the policies and processes used by PCTs to determine exceptional funding requests. The findings of the audit were made public in an RCF report entitled Taking Exception (August 2008). .......read pdf of Rarer Cancers Forum's Report 'Taking Exception'

more information on DH web site .....here

This is a good resource for understanding the genetics of cancer cells etc.... link to site here

Novartis Oncology, the manufacturer of Gleevec® & Tasigna® has established this Pregnancy Drug Exposure Registry to learn about pregnancy outcomes and the health of women who have taken Gleevec® and/or Tasigna® within six months prior to conception or during pregnancy. The information gathered in this Registry may supplement other sources of data and assist clinicians and patients in weighing the risks or benefits of being exposed to these medications around conception and during pregnancy. ...link to site here

Rarer Cancer Forum have produced a booklet to advice consultants on appealing negative funding decisions from PCT's...download booklet here