6 Implications for the NHS

6.1 Although it is hard to estimate the number of eligible patients accurately, it is anticipated that only a small proportion of adults with GH deficiency will achieve sustained improvement of at least 7 points on the QoL-AGHDA scale at the end of the assessment period (that is, 9 months). If it is assumed that 30% of adult-onset and 10% of childhood-onset patients will fulfil the starting criteria, and of these 40% will fail to achieve an improvement of at least 7 points on the QoL-AGHDA scale, there will be around 1180 people in England and Wales who would be eligible for continuous GH treatment. This is less than the estimated number of patients currently receiving GH treatment, so implementing this guidance will not incur any additional costs to the NHS. However, in the absence of more accurate data on future uptake, it is not possible to indicate the scale of any potential savings.