News

Consultation: Commissioning Medicines in Children

NHS England has today (05 October 2016) launched a 30 day public consultation on a clinical commissioning policy proposition for commissioning medicines in children.  There has already been extensive engagement on this national policy, it has been developed with the support and input of lead clinicians and patient and public representatives.

This approach has helped ensure that the views of key stakeholders have informed and influenced the development of this policy to date. We now wish to test them further with wider groups of stakeholders.

5 comments

  1. anthony sinclair (Prof.) says:

    I think that this is a welcome start to fill a current commissioning gap, however two concerns

    1. Extrapolating condition and therapy from adults to children is better than nothing but not without issues.
    2. It still doesn’t address conditions that are predominantly paediatric prevelent and again highlights a glaring weakness in NHSE commissioning policy strategy.

    • NHS England says:

      Hi Anthony,

      Thank you for your comment on the policy proposal policy. Please do submit your views through the consultation hub so they can be formally considered.

      Kind Regards
      NHS England

  2. Saul Faust says:

    This is a very sensible policy that looks well written and should be supported.

  3. Robert Tomlinson says:

    Paediatric medicines. Most of these are made as unlicensed medicinal products by commercial and NHS based Specials Units. The remainder are adult medicines used off-licence. The problem is that the formulations are not child specific and may include excipients which are either harmful to immature liver, kidney and cardiac systems or used in concentrations exceeding safe daily limits in children. It is unlikely, commercial industry will be able to manufacture and licence all the paediatric medicines required. Therefore, it is essential that Specials Units provide robust and safe formulations with verifiable stability data and in a form suitable for administration. There should be collaboration between the Royal Colleges and the NHS Production and manufacturers committee to product a list of essential paediatric medicines similar to that of the TB medicines.

    • NHS England says:

      Hi Robert,

      Thank you for your comment on the policy proposal policy. Please do submit your views through the consultation hub so they can be formally considered.

      Kind Regards
      NHS England