Updated September 10, 2014.
The National Health Service (NHS) is based on the core principle that healthcare is a basic human right and that to provide a universal service for all, the NHS focuses on clinical need, not the ability to pay. The efficiency and clinical effectiveness of drugs becomes a paramount issue to the NHS in order to help restrain expenditure that already runs into billions of dollars a year.
In April 2005, an agency was set up to provide national guidance as to the cost effectiveness of treatments.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) initially dismissed available medications for Alzheimer's as being of little clinical value. Now, in a partial climb-down, they are to produce guidelines as to the use of donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine in moderate stages of the disease. NICE is not convinced that mematine, aimed at later stage Alzheimer's, is effective
Until now Alzheimer's patients have had to rely on the goodwill of their local health authority or the tenacity of relatives to press for treatments. New guidelines are likely to suggest that patients who score between 10 and 20 points on the MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination) should be able to receive treatment.
Although welcome news to Alzheimer's sufferers in the UK, a question mark still hangs over why mild and later stage cases of Alzheimer's have been excluded. In addressing these concerns, Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, states, "People with Alzheimer's will now receive these drugs when they can help them most."
Guidelines are expected to published around July 2006.
2006/01/26
The National Health Service (NHS) is based on the core principle that healthcare is a basic human right and that to provide a universal service for all, the NHS focuses on clinical need, not the ability to pay. The efficiency and clinical effectiveness of drugs becomes a paramount issue to the NHS in order to help restrain expenditure that already runs into billions of dollars a year.
In April 2005, an agency was set up to provide national guidance as to the cost effectiveness of treatments.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) initially dismissed available medications for Alzheimer's as being of little clinical value. Now, in a partial climb-down, they are to produce guidelines as to the use of donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine in moderate stages of the disease. NICE is not convinced that mematine, aimed at later stage Alzheimer's, is effective
Until now Alzheimer's patients have had to rely on the goodwill of their local health authority or the tenacity of relatives to press for treatments. New guidelines are likely to suggest that patients who score between 10 and 20 points on the MMSE (Mini Mental State Examination) should be able to receive treatment.
Although welcome news to Alzheimer's sufferers in the UK, a question mark still hangs over why mild and later stage cases of Alzheimer's have been excluded. In addressing these concerns, Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, states, "People with Alzheimer's will now receive these drugs when they can help them most."
Guidelines are expected to published around July 2006.
2006/01/26
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