NICE ? I think not.
Posted by Ricky in Opinion under on Sep 03 2007
On August 10, the High Court in London upheld NICE’s argument that the medicines known as acetyl cholinesterase inhibitors, effective in delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s, are only cost-effective for patients with moderate stages of the illness and shouldn’t be prescribed to those with mild Alzheimer’s.
Many of us who have family experience of Alzheimer’s disease will be deeply troubled by this decision and by the Kafkaesque process of cost-benefit analysis applied to people’s lives. Is this really how our National Health Service is meant to operate?
In France today, Nicholas Sarkozy, the new President, has made the treatment of and research into Alzheimer’s a central policy of his five year term with a co-ordinated program of research, early diagnosis, treatment and financial support.(Diagnosis, treatment, financial support: priorities of the Sarkozy plan to fight Alzheimer’s ) The statistics from France are sobering indeed. Are they likely to be different here? It’s not just ‘the grass is greener on the other side’ that makes me think that this terrible affliction is being better managed 40 miles away.
‘In France, it is officially estimated that there are 860,000 existing cases with 225,000 new cases diagnosed each year. After 75, more than 20% of women and 13% of men are affected. The percentage increases rapidly in line with age. Once diagnosed, average life expectancy is 8 1/2 years.’
‘Projections for the future show causes for concern. Taking into account the ageing of the population, the number of cases of Alzheimer’s should rise to 1.3 million in 2020 and to 2.1 million in 2040. We move therefore from the proportion of 15 cases per 1000, at present, to 20 per 1000 in 2020 and 30 per 1000 in 2040. On a worldwide level, the number of victims would quadruple by 2050, with a particularly marked increase in Asia.’
‘And again, these figures only record those cases of dementia that have been medically diagnosed. Studies on younger deceased, in good health when they died, have uncovered an alarming proportion of cerebral lesions characteristic of the disease, but which had not yet translated into neurological symptoms.’
