Question reference: S4W-27014
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 7 August 2015
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 September 2015
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of NHS boards’ implementation of the guidance that approval of individual patient treatment requests should be based on clinical need.
Answer
There has been significant increase in patient access to orphan, ultra-orphan and end of life medicines through the changed approach to individual patient treatment requests. In 2012-13 around 50 patients across Scotland accessed orphan, ultra-orphan and end of life medicines through this route. By 2014-15 this has increased tenfold to around 500 patients accessing orphan, ultra-orphan and end of life medicines through this route. The Scottish Government expects that in the future there will be reduced reliance on individual requests as the changes introduced by the Scottish Medicines Consortium are expected to deliver substantially improved access to end of life, orphan and ultra-orphan medicines for patients across Scotland. The Scottish Government does not have access to the clinical details of individual patients.