Liothyronine

(asked on 1st July 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the value for money of prescribing Liothyronine (T3) on the NHS.


Answered by
Seema Kennedy Portrait
Seema Kennedy
This question was answered on 9th July 2019

The Department has made no assessment. Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are responsible for the planning, commissioning and access to health care services for their local area.

NHS England and NHS Improvement are working closely with CCGs on the prescribing of liothyronine to support them with the implementation of guidance for CCGs on items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care.

This guidance includes recommendations on the use of liothyronine in line with the British Thyroid Association, who advise that a small proportion of patients treated with levothyroxine continue to suffer with symptoms despite adequate biochemical correction. In these circumstances, where levothyroxine has failed and in line with this guidance, endocrinologists providing NHS services may recommend liothyronine for individual patients after a carefully audited trial of at least three months duration of the drug.

Further guidance on the prescribing of liothyronine has been published by the Regional Medicines Optimisation Committee. The aim of the guidance is to make best practice on the prescribing of liothyronine clearer. CCGs are expected to have regard to national guidance, and are responsible for developing their own local approaches to its implementation taking into account local priorities and needs.

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