Impotent pay pounds 1,000 for pounds 9.95 cure

GLENDA COOPER

Impotent men are paying more than pounds 1,000 for treatment that could be available for little or no cost on the National Health Service, because they are too embarrassed to see their GPs, it was claimed yesterday.

Vulnerable men - many of whom keep their erection problems from their partners - are falling victim to slick salesmen from private clinics and are paying vastly inflated prices, according to a report in Health Which? magazine.

The five London clinics investigated charged between pounds 360 and pounds 1,300 for treatment, with one claiming to use the most "advanced substance" to bring about a natural erection.

In fact, the substance used is alprostadil sold as Caverject, which is a standard treatment used by most clinics and costs the NHS about pounds 9.95 per injection.

Impotence treatment is available free on the NHS but there are relatively few NHS impotence clinics. Sufferers should get their GP to identify the cause of their problem, whether physical or psychological.

If the doctor feels it is treatable by injection, the patient should ask for an appointment with the urology department at his local hospital which will work out the dosage needed and show the patient how to inject himself. After that the injection is the price of a prescription.

The deputy editor of the Consumers' Association's Health Which?, Robert Ashton, said: "This is an incredibly sensitive subject and men want to keep it private. Often they will see adverts in magazines that promise a simple and easy solution or painless and advanced treatment. They phone up and get an incredibly slick salesman on the other end and they are hooked."

Even if they feel that they have been overcharged, he added, most are too embarrassed to complain.

Mr Ashton said it was "ludicrous" that sufferers could pay pounds 1,300 for a treatment that could be administered at home for the price of a prescription.

However, Clive Gingell, consultant urologist at Southmead Hospital, Bristol, warned that there could be a wait of up to a year for NHS treatment.

"Waiting times are such a common problem that many people choose to go private," he said. "People are aware of the treatment options and may feel the waiting times are too long. And not all urology departments can provide this service ... small departments do not have the manpower to see such patients."

Dr Gingell called for GPs to be trained to administer the injections: "It would cut out the necessity of referring. I don't see why GPS should not be able to do the treatment themselves."