How can NHS Scotland afford to fund an anti-HIV drug?

Continuing Scotland’s reputation for outspending public services in England (courtesy of funding arrangements which transfer resources from taxpayers south of the border) the Scottish Medicines Consortium today approved the prescription of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis ( PrEP) – the drug claimed to prevent the spread of HIV from infected people to their non-infected partners. The drug is expected to be made available to 1,900 people, at a cost to NHS Scotland of £450 a month each.

PrEP would be an inappropriate use of taxpayers’ money at the best of times, but coming at a time when the NHS is desperately short of cash it is an outrage that the taxpayer is being called upon to subsidise people to take irresponsible risks: namely having unprotected sex with multiple partners. The PrEP lobby claims that it will save the NHS money by reducing the number of HIV infections and therefore the very high cost of treating them.