Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will estimate how many proposals for new medical technologies the NICE Technology Appraisal Committee has discussed in the last five years.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has advised that it defines medical technologies as all products, except medicines, used in healthcare to diagnose, prevent, monitor or treat illness or disability, for example a pacemaker, knee replacement, X-ray machine or blood pressure monitor.
NICE has advised that its Technology Appraisal Committee has appraised seven such medical technologies in the last five years. A further four technologies have guidance currently in development.