Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 5 Chwefror 1991.
Is the Secretary of State aware that the denial of interleukin-2 to a patient at Christie hospital
shows the problem of fixed budgets? In a written answer to me the Department of Health said that that drug could be used on a named patient. The drug and therapeutics committee said that the drug was not being prescribed not because it did not agree with it in principle but because
this could not be achieved within existing funding.
That drug has not been allowed to Mrs. Kendrick and 50 others because the budget is overspent. Will the Secretary of State please review the position and ensure that life-saving drugs are available to all patients if they are about to die?