Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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228. To ask the Minister for Health if public patients will have immediate access, without cost, to pembrolizumab for treatment of cervical cancer, if clinically recommended; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54922/21]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has put in place arrangements which will facilitate access to Pembrolizumab for cervical cancer patients, on a case-by-case basis in public hospitals, when a treating clinician determines that this is in the patient’s best interests.  All prescribing decisions will be entirely a matter for the treating clinician, in line with patient safety protocols and the Medical Council Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics.  The HSE has communicated this approach to hospitals and medical oncologists. 

This arrangement will apply to cervical cancer patients only. The costs of pembrolizumab will be reimbursed to hospitals where the treatment decision for each individual patient is taken by the patient’s treating clinician and is in line with hospital agreed patient safety protocols.

The statutory responsibility of the HSE for medicine pricing and reimbursement decisions, in accordance with the Health (Pricing and Supply of Medical Goods) Act 2013, remains unchanged.