Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to improve the (a) adoption and (b) spread of medical technologies across the NHS.

In February 2023, the Government published its first ever strategy for MedTech, outlining our priorities for improving the adoption and spread of safe, effective and innovative medical technologies across the National Health Service.

As part of this effort, we are implementing solutions to streamline the innovation adoption pathway. We are focusing on clarifying signals to industry on what innovation the NHS needs, reforming regulation, providing product assessments based on real world evidence, and improving procurement processes.

We recently launched the Innovative Devices Access Pathway pilot in September 2023. The pilot will test a pre-regulatory, access pathway for eight pilot technologies that meet a clinical unmet need in the NHS. This accelerated pathway will support the adoption of transformative technologies into the NHS and to patients.

The Government is investing £30 million in the Health Tech Adoption and Acceleration Fund. Funding has been disseminated to all 42 integrated care systems to invest in proven technology that will help cut waiting lists, speed up diagnosis and deliver new and improved ways to treat patients.

The Department has partnered with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to develop and pilot a process for evaluations that compare similar MedTech products in use across the NHS. These evaluations will improve NHS decision makers ability to identify which products offer value for money and are worth adopting more widely.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is updating the medical device regulatory framework. The new framework is designed to protect patient safety, support innovation within the United Kingdom’s life sciences sector and improve access to innovative medical devices.