Bristol's NHS commissioning group is one of many across the country which is "causing harm" to people with thyroid problems by limiting the provision of a drug, a new report says.
Analysis from the Thyroid Trust says that 58 per cent of NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups in England are withdrawing, refusing or reducing prescriptions of T3 for people with underactive thyroids - against national guidance. People who have thyroid problems can suffer from depression, crippling fatigue, weight gain and muscle weakness, which can be alleviated by the drug.
But the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCG does not permit prescribing the drug for new patients, according to the report. One Westcountry woman told the Express that she had her T3 prescription withdrawn, which caused her significant problems.
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Former police officer Carole Morgan-Anstee, 62, told the website she went through "hell" after her T3 was stopped. The Somerset woman was prescribed the drug after suffering symptoms including chronic fatigue and hair loss for 15 years.
But after being treated with T3 for five years, her endocrinologist told her he had been ordered to stop prescribing it for her. He reportedly said the problem was that her local Bristol North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCG had began cutting back on T3 supplies.
Carole said: "I was really upset. It was hell. My treatment was completely within the guidelines and he knew how ill I would get if they took it away.
"It had taken me 15 years to get it prescribed, then it took me about three years to feel better. I was starting to feel I could do stuff and not fall asleep every time I went anywhere."
Carole resorted to going online and buying the drug from Bulgaria, Mexico and Turkey and while on holiday in Greece. But she became unwell when her supplies ran out as a combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit.
She said: "I got ill. I had chest pains, I was tired. All these symptoms came flooding back.
"I wrote to them and said you have to do something. I kept complaining, kicking off.
"Eventually, they agreed to reinstate my T3. But there were lots who didn't have it reinstated because they didn't do what I did."
The Thyroid Trust report says that NHS England have given "repeated assurances" that it will urge local health authorities not to withhold the drug from patients who may benefit. The policies to withhold it come in spite of the price of the drug falling by 75 per cent since 2017, dropping the price of a packet by £200 to £63.
The Thyroid Trust report says: "Around the country most Clinical Commissioning Groups have policies in place which are causing harm to patients by denying treatment. In those cases where this has occurred, patients have resorted to the private sector or to informal means, such as buying the medication online, or even travelling abroad where it is sometimes available to buy over the counter, to source the medicine they need which the NHS should be providing.
"It is likely that many more patients are not benefitting from levothyroxine, since many are unable to go to the lengths required to push for liothyronine, or are not aware that T3 could be an option for them." And it adds: "People’s lives are being blighted and it is time for decisive action to resolve this matter."
An NHS Spokesperson said: “In line with guidance, it is for individual clinicians to determine if patients in their care should be prescribed liothyronine.
“In exceptional circumstances, where a specialist doctor has recommended this medicine, a decision is made as part of a shared conversation between the patient and the healthcare professional managing their care.”
