Dr. Aine Carroll:

With regard to the questions put to me, the clinical advisory group is scheduled to meet on 5 November. It is anticipated that when the group has agreed to the current draft of the model of care, it will be circulated for much wider consultation. The outcome from that consultation process will be fed back into the final model of care.

In conjunction with the medicines management programme, my colleagues in primary care and acute hospitals and I are in the process of developing protocols in respect of the prescription of high-cost medication. We will be examining the position with regard to rheumatology drugs in the first instance and we will then be looking at neurology drugs. My colleagues Chris McGuigan and Niall Tubridy have done a great deal of work in respect of high-cost neurology drugs. We will be developing protocols to drive the process forward and getting rid of the postcode lottery.