High cost patients and the consortium approach.

The Pan-Thames Haemophilia Consortium was established to provide coherent regional planning of haemophilia services. The Expert Advisory Group is a clinical reference point for the consortium and was established to consider specifically elective high cost treatment programmes. An audit of the first year of consortium activity demonstrated that patients receiving high cost therapy represented 1.6% of the patient population and received 16% of the entire treatment budget. The Pan-Thames Consortium provides focused commissioning expertise and a model for national commissioning of haemophilia services.