Priority Setting

About Priority Setting

A region-wide Priorities Committee (Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire East and Berkshire West PCTs) makes recommendations about which drugs and treatments should be low priority and which should be funded routinely. Advice from the Committee is considered by NHS Oxfordshire's Enhanced Clinical Executive and helps them make difficult decisions about prioritisation.

The South Central Priorities Support Unit provides an independent service to all PCTs in the South Central region: the Unit undertakes literature searches and produces evidence-based reviews on new and current treatments for discussion by the Priorities Committee. The Priorities Committee has a wide membership that includes NHS hospital consultants, GPs, pharmacists, NHS managers and lay representatives.

NHS Oxfordshire has a process in place to consider referrals for individual patients for treatments that are not routinely commissioned by the PCT: see Individual Patient Treatment Requests.

Please contact NHS Oxfordshire's Health Care Priorities Administrator on (01865) 336887 or email the following confidential address: priorities.oxfordshirepct@nhs.net for all enquiries about the health care services funded by the PCT.

The Priorities Committee

The work of the Priorities Committee includes:

  • Considering whether or not new medicines and interventions should be funded
  • Considering whether currently funded treatments are effective and should continue to be funded
  • Following recommendation by the Enhanced Clinical Executive on behalf of the PCT's Board, producing local commissioning policies (called 'lavender' statements)
  • Advising on the local implementation of national guidance, eg, guidance from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). For further information, including an explanation of the types of guidance published by NICE, and how these are funded by NHS Oxfordshire, please see NICE Updates.

For further information about the work of the Priorities Committee:

The Ethical Framework

The South Central Priorities Support Unit, the South Central Priorities Committees, and NHS Oxfordshire's Healthcare Priorities Team use an ethical framework in their decision making processes. The ethical framework requires consideration of:

  • Clinical effectiveness - evidence of benefit and possible side effects of treatment
  • Cost effectiveness - evidence of health benefits compared with costs
  • Equity - to ensure that patients suffering to a similar degree are treated equally
  • Patient Choice - views of patient groups and individuals are considered

Read the South Central Ethical Framework (pdf file; 141 kb)