How much will Herceptin really cost?: The money is already there

doi:10.1136/bmj.39052.480231.FA

BMJ 2006;333:1219 (9 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.39052.480231.FA

Letters

How much will Herceptin really cost?

The money is already there

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Barrett et al state that "the real cost of Herceptinis in the other patients not treated, whether they are patientswith cancer or those with other conditions"—the opportunitycost.¹ The competing demands that medical professionals acrossmultiple disciplines place on limited resources and their responsibilityto ensure the judicious use of publicly funded resources shouldalso have been acknowledged.

It is too easy to blame the National Institutefor Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) when healthcare professionalscan enable judicious use of what has already been provided.Moon and Bogle highlighted savings of £1.1 billion ( ${euro}$ 1.6bn;$2.1bn)over five years by promoting the generic substitutionof statins for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovasculardisease,² and Barrett et al's strategic health authority estimatessavings of £20m this way.³

Clinicians currently have little incentive toseek prescribing savings, particularly if savings are then usedto stem deficits. Devolving prescribing . . . [Full text of this article]

Rubin Minhas, general practitioner

¹ Sunlight Medical Centre, Gillingham, Kent ME7 1LX anything@rubin.icom43.net