The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) – the body which provides guidance on what to use when diagnosing, treating and preventing disease within the UK, has produced a new set of guidance to avoid postcode prescribing. It is concerned that a significant number of Primary Care Trusts or Clinical Commissioning Groups put the most expensive treatments on a red list and prefer the cheapest generic drugs with the aim of achieving spending cuts. NICE wants to see medicines approved by NICE incorporated into lists of available drugs within 90 days of their approval. The only thing stopping NICE-approved drugs should be clinical needs of particular patients.
For more, see here: http://www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/news/ImprovingAccessToNICEApprovedDrugs.jsp.