Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the uptake of new diagnostic devices of the lack of mandatory requirement for clinical commissioning groups to provide funding for such devices following approval by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
The Department has made no assessment. Diagnostics guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes evidence-based, authoritative recommendations for the National Health Service on the clinical and cost effective use of new diagnostic technologies. There is no statutory funding requirement for technologies recommended by NICE in its diagnostics guidance. However, NHS organisations are expected to take NICE’s guidance into account in making funding decisions for individual diagnostic technologies.