Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill
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The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has today reiterated its opposition to the Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill that will be debated by MPs this Friday (16 October 2015).
Ian Ritchie PRCSEd said; "The College has lobbied hard against this and the previous iteration tabled by Lord Saatchi as we believe that both are unnecessary and have the potential to undermine patient care.”
The Bill proposes the creation of a 'Database of Innovations' as well as significant changes to the way that patients can hold doctors to account when things go wrong. In a letter to over 500 MPs, the PRCSEd explained how the database was open to abuse and how it would effectively absolve doctors from any liability if they followed the Bill’s low standards of consultation.
Mr Ritchie added; "there is no evidence that this Bill is needed nor wanted. Whilst we support innovation, patients need to be protected from bad science and unfounded experiments.
"The real barriers to innovation are the often complex regulatory environment and relative lack of research funding. Unfortunately, the Bill does nothing to address these issues.”
For more information on the Bill and the College’s campaign against it, please contact Chris Sanderson or Ande Mullinex at RCSEd’s Birmingham centre.
