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Mental Health Services

Volume 489: debated on Wednesday 11 March 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what effect he expects the NHS Constitution will have on levels of access to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence-approved psychological therapies; and if he will make a statement. (261980)

The NHS Constitution sets out that patients have the right to drugs and treatments that have been recommended by a National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal, if their doctor says they are clinically appropriate. This includes psychological therapies appraised by NICE. The right is underpinned by a statutory funding direction, in place since January 2002, which requires primary care trusts to make funding available for drugs and treatments recommended in a NICE technology appraisal, normally within three months of publication of the appraisal.