Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to page 77 of the NHS Long Term Plan, what criteria will determine which medical technology innovations are ready for adoption; and what plans are being put in place for the individualised support described in that document.

As part of the NHS Long Term Plan, NHS England sets out accelerating the uptake of proven, affordable innovations through a new funding mandate for diagnostics, devices and digital innovation. This will apply to innovations that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has assessed as cost-saving. NICE will increase the number of evaluations for these products, and these assessments will form the basis of the ‘ready for spread’ status.

Further work to develop implementation plans on criteria and the individualised support described in the NHS Long Term Plan is currently underway, and will be published later this year.