Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the performance of the Innovation, Health and Wealth programme; and what the costs of the programme to date have been in respect of (a) the NHS and (b) external consultancies.
The Innovation, Health and Wealth programme is a 10-year strategy, launched in December 2011, alongside the Government's Strategy for the UK Life Sciences.
NHS England has advised that considerable progress has already been made, with the vast majority of actions now complete and showing positive early signs of improvement in uptake and utility of new medicines and technologies in the National Health Service. NHS England, along with key stakeholders from the NHS, industry and representative bodies, has recently completed a refresh of the programme. This reviewed progress to date and identified areas where further action is needed. NHS England plans to publish the results of that review later this year.
NHS England has advised that information on expenditure on the Innovation, Health and Wealth programme is not available. Funding for the programme is shown in the table:
Innovation Health and Wealth programme | 2013-14 budget £000 | 2014-15 budget £000 |
Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) | 56,400 | 53,600 |
Innovation scorecard | 100 | 100 |
Healthcare UK | 1,000 | 615 |
Innovation challenge prizes | 1,100 | 676 |
Regional Innovation Fund | 5,000 | 3,000 |
Small Business Research Initiative(through AHSNs) | 10,000 | 20,000 |
NICE Implementation Collaborative | 5 | 15 |
Industry council | 5 | 15 |
Exchange | 50 | 60 |
EXPO | 53 | 50 |
Exchange communications | 0 | 50 |
Fellowship | 100 | 50 |
Patient pull | 20 (not spent) | 20 |
Wheelchair tariff | 167 | 0 |
Source: Information provided by NHS England