UK post code lottery slammed by ABPI

The director general of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, Richard Barker, has given a detailed criticism of access to medicines under the UK's public health care system. Writing in the Daily Mail newspaper, Dr Barker said that, although "we accept inequality in many areas of life...when it comes to the National Health Service, inequality spells unfairness at times of greatest need."

The injustice is all the greater from the fact that people are paying the same levels of taxes to fund the NHS, but are receiving widely different service from one district to another, he argued. Even worse, there is a growing sense of division between England and the rest of the UK, where some drugs are easier to access and prescription charges are lower or non-existent (Marketletters passim).

Despite official pronouncements from government-appointed figures such as Roger Boyle, the "Heart Czar," the use of statins as a way of lowering cholesterol is "patchy," Dr Barker noted. "It can be three times as high in one Primary Care Trust than the one next door." On cancer treatment, the ABPI director general described the "sub-standard" NHS provision as "a national scandal" in many parts of the country.