THE BILL to the Health Service Executive for making drugs available not contained in its National Service Plan for 2012 will total €30 million for the year.
The HSE confirmed the amount yesterday, with the executive saying the costs of providing two drugs alone, hepatitis C drugs Boceprevir and Telaprevir, will total between €8-€10 million for the year. The HSE made the drugs available in June following the intervention of the Department Health.
In a letter to outgoing HSE chief executive Cathal Magee, the secretary general of the Department of Health, Dr Ambrose McLoughlin confirmed that Minister for Health Dr James Reilly met with representatives of State-infected hepatitis C patients.
Dr McLoughlin wrote: “The Minister is satisfied that there is considerable risk associated with not proceeding with the treatment of clinically appropriate patients with the new drugs to treat hepatitis C.”
He called for the drugs to be approved for use with immediate effect, and in response Mr Magee confirmed the drugs would be made available, but that the cost of providing the drugs in a full year was €30 million.
In the letter released through the Freedom of Information Act, Mr Magee stated “you will be aware from our service plan that no funding is in place within the HSE for new drugs”.
The HSE confirmed yesterday that the cost this year of providing new oral anti-coagulants Dabigatran and Rivaroxaban totals €10 million. It also confirmed that the cost of providing Ipilimumab for cancer patients suffering with malignant melanoma is €6 million to €7 million this year.
The cost of providing the drugs comes against the background of an overspend in the HSE’s primary care reimbursement service (PCRS) that pays for the drugs, at €92 million for the first six months of this year and accounting for 31 per cent of the overall deficit.
The HSE’s latest performance report points the finger at Government for its failure to reduce the price of drugs that would save the HSE €100 million in a full year. It says that “a number of policy initiatives agreed with the Department of Health are included in the National Service Plan 2012”.
The report warns: “If these savings are not delivered then there will be serious funding implications for the HSE this year.”
The HSE says the projected deficit in the PCRS for the year has increased to €204 million, and “achievement of a break even position by year-end is at serious risk” for a number of reasons.
The HSE points to the growing demand for its services, revealing that the number of people eligible for a medical card has increased by 7.5 per cent or 126,910 from 1,694,063 in January to 1,820,973 at the start of July.
It states: “Additionally, year-on-year the number of items reimbursed on the GMS scheme has grown by 2.2 million items.”
