Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the ability of NHS procurement to realise the benefits of medical technology that are accrued outside of NHS settings in social care or through savings in welfare and return to work spending.

The Category Tower Service Providers (part of the new NHS Supply Chain) contract has a number of savings methodologies included that will be verified and reported for customers. There is no specific reference in the NHS Supply Chain model to potential savings outside of the National Health Service, but as part of their Category Strategies providers can develop potential savings for identified life-cycle and patient pathways.

The NHS has multiple channels to market for innovators and every effort is made to ensure that innovations required by the NHS, are introduced with minimal delay. This is facilitated by the Accelerated Access Programme which was set up by the Office for Life Sciences.

For its part, NHS Supply Chain works with a plethora of NHS organisations involved with innovation to ensure that priority innovations are advanced, with appropriate commercial arrangements, to ensure product availability with minimal delay and at best value.