Guidance on NHS patients who wish to pay for additional private care

Following a 12 week consultation, from 4 November 2008 to 27 January 2009, the Department of Health has now published final guidance on NHS patients wishing to pay for additional private care, alongside a Government response to the consultation. This follows the publication on 4 November 2008 of Professor Mike Richards’s report Improving access to medicines for NHS patients, and the Secretary of State’s announcement of a package of measures in response, designed to make more drugs available to NHS patients free of charge on the NHS. These measures, such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s introduction of greater flexibility into its appraisal of more expensive drugs for end of life conditions, should minimise the number of patients who will ever want to pay for additional private care.

Published March 2009, 15 pages