Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help (a) prepare the NHS for innovative medicines for the treatment of and (b) increase the use of MRI scanners for (i) detection and (ii) diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

The National Health Service is a world leader in rolling out innovative treatments, including personalised cancer and life-saving gene therapies. A dedicated team is in place overseeing the NHS’s preparations for the potential arrival of new Alzheimer’s treatments that are approved by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and determined to be clinically and cost-effective by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.

The team, supported by clinical experts and system leaders, has taken concrete steps to ramp up preparations across the country, for example identifying new clinical pathway requirements and assessing the additional scanning, treatment and safety monitoring capacity that would be needed. This includes options for securing additional genetic testing and diagnostic capacity including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), lumbar puncture and PET-CT scanning.

NHS England is also working with partner agencies to support and inform further research into other diagnostic modalities, including blood-based biomarker and digital tests, which may help improve identification and management of Alzheimer’s disease. We are committed to transforming diagnostic services and will support the NHS to increase diagnostic capacity to meet the demand for diagnostic services, including for the detection and diagnosis of dementia, through investment in new capacity, including MRI scanners.