Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to increase the number of minimally-invasive cancer treatments available to patients through NHS Cancer Alliances.
The adoption of new treatments, including increasing the number of minimally invasive cancer treatments, into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institution of Clinical Exellence (NICE) guidance and commissioner decisions. Both NHS England and integrated care boards (ICBs) are required to put in place access for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by NICE.