NICE agrees with CPAP

[flyinpete]

NICE ...those wonderfull people who decide what medication is good for us...read what medication and treatments they are prepaired to pay for, have been reviewing CPAP as a treatment.

The final drapt document is out for review and thankfully looks positive.

Here is a copy of the drapt document, although its mosty double talk.

http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=download&o=38760

Peter

[Joe McManus]

Thanks Peter. Been following this from day one and indeed this month it was due. They'll start recognising OSA as a real problem and hopefully tell GPs about it. They will also force PCTs to make funds available but I doubt they'll pay for this demand.

700K undiagnosed SA patients x roughly £1000 for diagnosis and treatment (probably too low) = £700 million extra needed.

[Kipper]

Joe, surely they can negotiate a discount for quantity?

[Joe McManus]

Yes, they will but considering most people chew through multiple masks and need follow-ups, the £1K was a very low ballpark figure, just to make the calculations easy for me, off the top of my head

What the quick example was trying to show is that a heck of a lot of money is needed to cover all people and we all know how cash strapped the NHS is. For those reasons, I'm not expecting any miracles.

In the NICE report it does say that PCTs are required to follow the new guidelines within 3 months form being published so halfway this year no one can deny being helped anymore where currently people are being shown the door when they mention sleep apnoea.

[Andysee]

To shed some light on Kippers question. When I took my loan cpap back this week and had my Resmed Auto checked and put on the system I had a chat about funding and the cost of equipment with the technician. I wasn't told how much they were charged for each machine but it seems the discounts work on a buy x and get one free system.

Best regards
Andy