Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to recommendation three of the report Operational productivity and performance in English NHS acute hospitals: Unwarranted variations, published in February 2016, when he expects NHS Improvement to publish a list of the top 10 medicines with savings opportunities for trusts to pursue; what methodology will be used to develop that list and whether it will be subject to consultation; whether that list will include medicines prescribed in primary care; what steps NHS Improvement will take to monitor performance of trusts against that list; whether he intends that NHS Improvement will intervene in those trusts failing to realise savings opportunities; and if he will make a statement.

The Department’s Hospital Pharmacy Transformation Programme team are currently undertaking extensive consultation with trusts, key partner organisations and stakeholders as part of our Model Hospital development process, to produce our shortlist of medicines. Our initial focus will be on medicines prescribed exclusively in National Health Service hospitals.

We expect that trusts will wish to take such opportunities into account as part of the hospital pharmacy transformation plans they must have in place by April 2017. NHS Improvement will support trusts during the process of creating the plans to ensure they are robust and also address the medicines optimisation recommendations in Lord Carter’s report.