Why am I being denied a specific drug?

The ability to prescibe a specific drug should be a matter of clinical judgement, but depends on whether or not the drug is funded either by the Hospital Trust or comes under the list of approved drugs a GP can prescribe which will be dispenseed by an NHS pharmacist.

GPs are encouraged to prescribe from an agreed list of generic drugs rather than named drugs unless there are good clinical reasons why a patient requires a brand name drug rather than a generic one.

A patient may be denied a specific drug for a variety of reasons:

Tthe Primary Care Trust has made a decision not to fund it
The drug is not available in this country because it hasn't passed all the clinical trials yet
The drug has been declared as an unsuitable drug for a specific condition by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence

Each PCT will have a Prescribing and Medicines Management Strategy. Patients should enquire of their local PCT to discover what their prescribing policy is and if the matter has been debated at Trust level.

Patients can also bring Judicial Reviews of PCT decisions and legal advice should be sought if this path is to be followed.