Viagra made more widely available

Secretary of State for Health, Frank Dobson, announces new rules for prescribing Viagra and other drug treatments for impotence. Family Medicine reports

Most people support the idea that prescribing of Viagra by GPs should be restricted, according to the results of a public consultation on the treatment of impotence. Frank Dobson revealed that of the 831 responses received during the consultation period, three-quarters supported the idea that prescribing of Viagra by GPs should be restricted and a further ten per cent thought that it should be banned altogether. The Secretary of State for Health admitted that "a lot of people thought that more men than I proposed should be eligible for NHS prescriptions for impotence. But I have to think of the impact on the NHS as a whole in deciding this".

In so doing, Frank Dobson has decided to extend the list of eligible patients to include men treated for prostate cancer (the original proposal referred only to men having their prostate removed); men treated for kidney failure (by transplantation and dialysis); men who have had polio; men with spina bifida; men with Parkinson's disease and men with severe pelvic injury. Others entitled to treatment for impotence include men who were already receiving drug treatment for impotence from their GP on 14 September when Viagra was launched; and men whose impotence is causing them 'severe distress'.

Guidelines for the NHS on the arrangements for identifying and treating through secondary care services those other men whose condition is causing severe distress, will be available from 1 July 1999, the date from which these changes will come into force, subject to Parliamentary approval. GPs will also be able to prescribe to their own patients not included in the above categories, private prescriptions of drug treatments for impotence. Doctors will also be asked to aim to prescribe no more than one treatment for impotence per patient per week-a policy to be reviewed after one year. Frank Dobson told Family Medicine that he had little doubt that he had his priorities right and that other diseases such as breast cancer were far more important. "I am rationing in order to prioritise for other areas in the NHS"

And finally, when asked whether or not he had tried and tested the pill in question, the Secretary of State for Health sported a mini-grin before making a beeline for the exit, saying "certainly not". Uumh, I wonder . . . n.

Report by Harriett Ainley, Editor, Family Medicine