Writing to MPs is a waste of time - reply from Burstow

[Guest guest]

Hi Sheila,

Below is a reply I have received via my local MP Tracey Crouch. At the end of

his letter Mr Burstow said that if a person has any concerns over their

treatment or the drugs they are prescribed, they need to raise these concerns

with their GP or consultant. And if they do raise concerns over their treatment

or the drugs they are prescribed - then what????????? It all ends up with the

doctors saying that they are going by the RCP guidelines. One large Mobius loop

of bureaucracy and cop-out.

B

Dear Tracey

Thank you for your further letters of 4th August to Lansley and 9th

August to me enclosing correspondence from your constituent Ms B about the

diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism.

I apologise that I did not provide a more complete response to your

constituent's concerns in my previous reply. I can assure her that we are

committed to improving the quality of services to patients, including people

with hypothyroidism. However, I hope it is helpful if I clarify the situation

in relation to the issues she raises:

I note that Shaw wrote to the Department of Health on Ms B's behalf on

30th March last year and that Ann Keen replied setting out the Department's

position.

I am afraid that the Department's position has not changed since that reply. The

Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the British Thyroid Association (BTA) are

independent of the Government. The Department of Health has no plans to ask the

RCP to withdraw its clinical guidelines for the treatment of this medical

condition. Nor does the Department have any plans to produce guidance on the

diagnosis or treatment of hypothyroidism. UK Guidelines for the use of Thyroid

Function Tests are published jointly by the Association for Clinical

Biochemistry, the BTA, and the British Thyroid Foundation.

Doctors are encouraged not to rely too heavily on the results of blood tests,

but to use their clinical knowledge and an assessment of the symptoms

experienced by individual patients in making a diagnosis for thyroid treatment.

Doctors are free to use whatever guidance they feel is appropriate when making a

diagnosis. This includes guidance published in other countries.

Armour thyroid extract, which is desiccated pig thyroid extract, has not been

approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Likewise, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has not issued

a marketing authorisation for this product. The current advice on Armour

thyroid extract from the BTA is that there is no evidence of a beneficial

effect….compared to unitary therapy with thyroxine, and we believe that the

findings so far do not offer any advantage.

As Ms B notes, the RCP and several leading organisations endorse this advice.

I should add that under their terms of service, GPs are allowed to prescribe any

product, including any unlicensed product or product not licensed for a

particular indication, that they consider to be a medicine necessary for the

treatment of their patients under the NHS, subject to two provisos. These are

that:

· the product is not included in Schedules 1 or 2 of the NHS General Medical

Services Contracts (Prescription of Drugs etc) Regulations 2004, otherwise known

as the Selected List Scheme; and

· GPs are prepared to justify any challenges to their prescribing by their

Primary Care Trust.

It is the responsibility of health professionals to decide on the most

appropriate treatment for their patients. If a person has any concerns over

their treatment or the drugs they are prescribed, they need to raise these

concerns with their GP or consultant.

I hope that this reply clarifies the Department's position.

PAUL BURSTOW