2 April 2016 - Patients may miss out on vital drugs as doctors warned that high costs could cause the health service in Scotland to fall behind other UK nations.

Expensive new medicines could “bankrupt the NHS” and create a postcode lottery for patients north of the Border, an election hustings hosted by the British Medical Association heard.

Ian Devine, a haematology registar at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital, said new drugs for blood cancers were so expensive that they could account for a quarter of NHS Lothian’s medicines budgets by 2020.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said Scotland had a robust process for making decisions on drugs and urged the pharmaceutical industry to consider offering a fairer price for medicines.

Dr Devine said: “In haematology we are about to have a crisis effectively. A lot of new drugs are coming out at the moment that are exceptionally expensive. There is a growing concern amongst myself and my colleagues that the Scottish Government is not going to be able to fund these drugs any more despite the fact they have a good evidence base.

For more details, go to: http://www.scotsman.com/news/patients-could-suffer-as-drug-costs-threaten-to-bankrupt-nhs-1-4088576