The NHS is doing more harm than good by approving expensive drugs for a limited number of conditions such as advanced cancer, which use up funds that would benefit other parts of the health service, according to an analysis by a leading group of health economists.

The analysis suggests that substantial numbers of NHS patients are suffering harm and some will die early because money that could be spent on their treatment goes instead to pay for costly new drugs.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has a threshold of up to £30,000 for a drug that gives a patient a year of good-quality life. But Karl Claxton, professor of health economics at the University of York, and his colleagues argue that the threshold should be dropped to £13,000. Above that level, other patients will pay the price in inferior treatment.

Claxton said the study suggested that the health service is paying too much for pharmaceutical drugs. “I think the implications of this work are that if we stopped spending money on drugs that are more then £13,000 per quality-adjusted life year, we would improve health outcomes overall for the NHS,” he said.

For more details, go to: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/19/nhs-buys-expensive-new-drugs-nic