Viagra Warning

GP leaders have warned ministers that they will advise family doctors to prescribe the impotence drug Viagra on the NHS if no guidance is forthcoming within the next month.

The Department of Health put a block on NHS prescription of the drug in September amid fears that excessive demand could cost the health service more than bn a year.

GPs were told they could only prescribe the drug in "exceptional circumstances" until ministers issued further guidance.

However, the British Medical Association has warned that some GPs are already routinely issuing prescriptions for the drug.

They have warned that, if the Department of Health does not issue definitive guidelines within the next month, they will tell all GPs that they should go ahead and routinely prescribe the drug where necessary.

BMA chairman Dr Ian Bogle has written to Health Secretary Frank Dobson warning that GPs have no alternative but to prescribe Viagra because they were bound by their terms of service to do the best for their patients.

Dr Bogle writes: 'Doctors have been placed in an impossible position: on the one hand they are mindful of the Department's request not to prescribe Viagra but on the other have to respond to the needs of their patients.

"Indeed, to refuse to prescribe this licensed medicine on a prescription form when it is clinically necessary would leave GPs open to accusations of breaching their terms of service."

Dr Bogle said the Department of Health must address the general issue of how expensive new medicines should be prescribed by the NHS.

He said it was inevitable that the NHS would be faced with more and more tough decisions as medical technology allowed for the development of ever more sophisticated drugs.

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