Who is involved in the Scottish Medicines Consortium?
The Scottish Medicines Consortium is a committee of clinicians, pharmacists, NHS board representatives, the pharmaceutical industry and the public. Members of the committee consider a broad range of evidence in order to decide which medicines should be accepted for use by NHSScotland. Most of the clinicians have a direct role in patient care, while our three volunteer public partners ensure the views of the Scottish public are taken into account during decision making. This wide mixture of backgrounds ensures decisions are made from a broad perspective. The committee meets once a month.
The committee is supported by a team that includes pharmacists, health economists, health service researchers, public involvement professionals and administration support.
The New Drugs Committee
The New Drugs Committee (NDC) consists of clinicians, pharmacists and pharmaceutical industry representatives. They meet every month to assess the clinical and economic evidence presented by companies for each new medicine and this evidence is supplemented by testimonies from our network of clinical experts across NHSScotland.
Clinical experts
Not all clinical specialties can be represented on our committees, so we have established a network of clinical experts comprising consultant physicians, surgeons, clinical pharmacists, general practitioners and clinical nurse specialists. We consult with these experts about all new medicines under review and to support our horizon scanning function.
SMC executive
Our executive’s role is to guide the work of SMC and make decisions on process and policy issues to determine the overall direction of development. The executive consists of the chair and vice chairs of the SMC and NDC committees, together with SMC senior staff.
Public Involvement Network/PIN Advisory Group
The Public Involvement Network (PIN) is made up of patient and carer groups who have submitted evidence to SMC – our patient group partners. Their day to day contact with patients and carers ensures the views of those they represent are captured and used to inform our processes.
PIN also has a core advisory group which works with SMC to continuously improve how we involve patients, carers and members of the public in our work. Membership includes PIN patient group partners, our public partners and a clinical expert SMC Committee member.
SMC User Group Forum
Our user group forum provides an opportunity for representatives from the pharmaceutical industry with hands-on experience of health technology issues to work collaboratively with SMC. The group meets quarterly to address technical and process issues and facilitates pharmaceutical industry representation on NDC and SMC committees.
SMC Terms of Reference
Declarations of interest
All committee members and SMC staff are required to make a full declaration of interest on appointment and annually thereafter, in accordance with our code of practice on declarations of interest. Members are also required to declare relevant interests at meetings, regardless of whether those interests have previously been declared to SMC.
Additionally, clinical experts and patient group partners involved in the work of SMC are required to complete a declaration of interests.
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Declarations of interest for SMC are aligned with Healthcare Improvement Scotland Evidence Directorate policies.