Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What I am getting at is that in the UK, where there is perhaps pressure or the QALY does not come in as being approved, they often allow 18 months or two years of treatment period with a new drug and for the patient to be assessed thereafter so that one is not merely giving it and letting it go continuously. If it is a high-price drug, it is reassessed to see what impact it is having on the patient's condition. I have reason to believe some data are coming out for a particular drug, which I am not prepared to name, that was approved last year in which the outcomes do not seem like providing value for money as well as was portrayed, perhaps in the audiovisual, AV, room or whatever. It is difficult to take something off somebody. How does the HSE stem the flow? If patient X gets an orphan drug that is supposed to help the patient but in two years we are still paying for it and the doctor decides there is no clinical indication to continue, has the HSE built in a system of saying "No"?