Downing Street Says » Photo-Dynamic Therapy

In the light of questions asked today at PMQs, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) advised journalists that the issue was not about whether Photo-Dynamic Therapy (PDT) was being implemented at the current time, but how long it would take to ensure a high and consistent standard of care across the country. NICE had agreed with the Department of Health that, because it would take time to train all staff up to the same standard, the target would be nine months instead of three. Thus, it was not a matter of some people not receiving treatment at the current time. Rather, where the facilities existed and were up to a high standard – which we believed was already the case in the majority of centres – people would receive the treatment now if they needed it. In answer to further questions, the PMOS said that people would receive treatment where the facilities existed and where staff had been trained. However, because it would take time to train all staff in PDT, it would take nine months until a high and consistent standard of care was achieved across the country. Asked how we would square the fact that only people who lived in certain areas would be able to receive PDT, with the Government’s stated commitment to stamp out the postcode lottery, the PMOS said that it was a matter of training up all staff in PDT. NICE had agreed with the Department of Health that it would take nine months to do. Asked what was being done to help those people who needed PDT but lived in the wrong geographical area, the PMOS said that this was one of the issues which was being considered. He pointed out that, as we understood it, fifty centres were needed to cover the country. At the moment, only about thirty had staff who had been trained up in PDT. By the end of nine months, we hoped that all fifty centres would be fully operational.

3 Comments »

I thought Humphrey had passed away? obviously his spirit lives on …
Comment by Geoff — 4 Mar 2004 on 2:55 pm | Link
Diseases are the interests of pleasures. <a href="http://www.disney.com/">(c)</a>
Comment by Tabitha — 14 Jun 2004 on 1:58 am | Link
What’s acutally wrong with this statement, as a sidenote? Expecting new treatments to spring fully formed from the head of Zeus is a bit much – so what if it takes <n> months to roll something out across the NHS? Do we really want to be told that these rollouts happen overnight? Do we prefer to believe that the treatments weren’t there yesterday, and then suddenly, tomorrow, 50 centers began offering it?

With all of the real issues there are to nail Blair over, I just can’t help but feel that the press spends a lot of its time wasting ours.
Comment by Gregory Block — 14 Jun 2004 on 9:15 am | Link

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» Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Photo-Dynamic Therapy

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