Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, by when he plans for new drug treatments for sepsis and Acute Respiratory Disease Syndrome to be available on the NHS.

George Freeman

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is currently developing a clinical guideline on the recognition, diagnosis and management of severe sepsis. The guideline will consider the full range of treatment options for sepsis. NICE currently plans to publish this guidance in July 2016.

There are no plans for NICE to develop technology appraisal guidance on the use of new drug treatments for sepsis or acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

NHS England has advised that there have been many trials of new treatments for ARDS but no consistent benefit has been found in any of these.

In the absence of NICE guidance, funding decisions for individual treatments should be made by the relevant National Health Service commissioner, based on an assessment of the available evidence. Commissioners are also required to have processes in place for the consideration of exceptional funding requests.