Clinical Priorities Advisory Group

(asked on 3rd September 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2018 to Question 142774 on Clinical Priorities Advisory Group, if he will publish the costing forecasts undertaken for all treatments which went through the relative prioritisation process in May 2018.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 11th September 2018

The level of funding for products undergoing review by NHS England will be determined during the 2019/20 planning process.

In 2016/17 and 2017/18, £25 million was set aside for discretionary investment in new specialised services. This was determined by NHS England, who considered it an appropriate level of investment in the context of NHS England’s Specialised Commissioning functioning having to achieve overall efficiency savings of approximately 2.5% and 2.7% in 2016/17 and 2017/18 respectively in order to meet the financial pressures resulting from demographic growth and the legal requirement to fund all positive National Institute for Health and Care Excellence technology appraisals.

The split in the overall funding available between the November and May prioritisation rounds is not fixed but determined each year based on the number and estimated cost of treatments being considered by the independently chaired Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) in each round. Revealing the split risks revealing commercial in confidence information around pricing. Anything that is not prioritised in the November round has the opportunity to be considered at the May round therefore ensuring consideration against the full funding envelope for the financial year.

Where manufacturers have requested the cover sheets of the policy propositions, they have received the CPAG summary report as presented at the May 2018 meeting from NHS England.

The full scoring methodology that is used at all prioritisation meetings is published on the NHS England website. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/commissioning/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2016/06/prioritisation-method-cons-response.pdf

The outcome of the May 2018 prioritisation process through use of this methodology has been published as a ranked list of five prioritisation Levels. This can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/2017/12/nhs-england-announces-new-specialised-treatments-for-patients/

The impact assessments for all the treatments include a narrative about the estimated forecast financial implications for each item, based on the list price. These are published as part of the public consultation pack. The detailed costings are not shared as in many cases these are based on discount prices provided on a commercial in confidence basis.

The methodology for relative prioritisation has been subject to legal advice as part of its development and implementation, and NHS England believes it complies with equalities legislation, the NHS Constitution and human rights legislation.

NHS England routinely publishes the stakeholder engagement response report as part of consultation through policy development, but does not routinely publish any responses that arise as a result of public consultation.

NHS England has no plans to introduce a revised decision-making process for ultra-orphan medicines as introduced in Scotland following the Montgomery Review. NHS England will continue to use the methodology for prioritisation that has previously been publicly consulted on.

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