MK: Thanks again for your contribution. We'll make you a PFEr yet!!!
Here's how AP is reporting this story.
BigKNY3
Brits To Pay for Limited Viagra Use
01/21/99
LONDON (AP) - In a reversal, Britain announced Thursday that Viagra would be made available to some patients through its national health system - but the plan was immediately criticized by doctors as being too restrictive.
Health Secretary Frank Dobson proposed that the drug would be available to men whose impotence was due to pelvic surgery, spinal cord injury, removal of the prostate, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and certain genetic disorders.
His plan was announced in a consultation document, which gives doctors and other interested parties six weeks to comment.
"Impotence in itself is neither life-threatening nor does it cause physical pain," Dobson said.
The National Health Service's current expenditure for treating impotence - $16.5 million - could increase by 10 times or more without some restrictions, he said.
In September, Dobson had said that Viagra would not be available at all through the National Health Service.
Dr. John Chisholm, chairman of the British Medical Association's General Practitioners Committee, called Dobson's plan "unfair and divisive."
"These are cruel and ineffective distinctions between good and bad and acceptable and unacceptable causes of impotence," Chisholm said. "From the perspective of patients and doctors, this is a desperate condition."
"This decision is quite bizarre," he added |
