Only one pill a week, but more men can get Viagra
George Jones and Richard Downie
05/08/1999
The Daily Telegraph
MORE impotent men are to be allowed to have Viagra on the National Health Service, but they will be allowed only one tablet a week.
Frank Dobson, the Health Secretary, yesterday published long-awaited guidelines for prescribing Viagra , ending the restriction on its NHS availability from July.
The limited extension announced by Mr Dobson means that men treated for prostate cancer, those with kidney failure, spina bifida, Parkinson's disease and those who have had polio will qualify for the anti-impotence drug.
The medical conditions join a list previously considered eligible for treatment with Viagra drawn up earlier this year. This included men who had undergone radical pelvic surgery or had their prostate removed, those suffering from spinal cord injury, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and single gene neurological disease.
Other men "severely distressed" by their impotence are also to be considered for treatment, but only after a specialist assessment in a hospital.
However, the original proposals excluded an estimated 85 per cent of the 2.5 million men thought to suffer from impotence in Britain.
Doctors criticised the Department of Health for "making a cruel and unethical distinction between acceptable and unacceptable forms of impotence" and overruling the contractual and ethical obligations of GPs to prescribe the drugs their patients needed.
When the drug was initially licensed eight months ago, the Department of Health sent a warning letter to doctors advising them not to prescribe it on the NHS until guidance had been issued.
Ministers feared that unlimited demand for Viagra , which costs pounds 4.83 a tablet, could break NHS drug budgets. Mr Dobson has also cleared the way for GPs to issue private prescriptions to patients who do not qualify under the guidelines for NHS treatment. But they will not be able to charge for writing the prescription.
The new rules come into effect on July 1.
Mr Dobson said the Government had sought to find a sensible balance between treating men with impotence and protecting the resources of the NHS.
The decision, he said, would mean mean "slightly more money" than the current pounds 12 million a year would be spent on treating men for impotence.
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