NEW UK LIMITED LIST DETAILS ANNOUNCED

The planned, new UK extension of the National Health Service Limited List of prescribable products to several additional categories of medicines has now been finalized with respect to analgesics, indigestion remedies, vitamins, topical antirheumatics and "borderline" substances. But thus far, the UK Department of Health has made no mention of the two most contentious categories to be de-listed: contraceptives and hormone replacement products, and dermatological preparations.

An announcement from the Ministry notes that 62 medicines - mainly topical antirheumatic preparations - together with 550 foods, toiletries, pesticides and nicotine replacement patches, will no longer be available on prescription from family doctors. Regulations were laid before Parliament on October 11, and these will come into force on November 1.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Tom Sackville said that the NHS "should not be paying for items which have no therapeutic or clinical value," noting that items such as mineral water, cakes, lip salves and face powder cannot be classed as medicines, and he added that he felt minded to accept the advice of the independent Advisory Committee on Borderline Substances that they have no clinical value, and general practitioners should not be prescribing them. The NHS, he said, "cannot be expected to supply dietary supplements which can be bought over-the-counter in health food shops, and currently cost the NHS over L 60,000 ($91,915) a month."