Liothyronine
(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps he has taken to increase access to liothyronine on the NHS for people with hypothyroidism.
It is for individual clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to determine the appropriate approach for the prescribing of liothyronine in their area in consultation with their local patients and stakeholders. Individual CCGs are also responsible for ensuring that patients with thyroid disorders have access to appropriate secondary care specialists where they are clinically required. Decisions about treatment should always be based on patients’ clinical needs.
NHS England will continue to monitor the implementation of the guidance ‘Items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care: guidance for CCGs’ published in November 2017 and will review it at regular intervals to address any unintended consequences. This is available at the following link:
NHS Clinical Commissioners has reiterated to CCGs that liothyronine should only be prescribed where it is clinically appropriate to do so.