Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what impact assessment was undertaken by NHS England’s Clinical Priorities Advisory Group to inform understanding of the patient perspective when considering reimbursement for a new treatment.

In 2019, the Clinical Priorities Advisory Group (CPAG) trialled the use of patient impact reports as part of the background information shared with panel members. This information was not considered as part of the decision-making process, but supported CPAG members to more fully understand the conditions being discussed.

The reports had a mixed reception with a number of stakeholders declining to take part for different reasons, as outlined in the announcement from the previous prioritisation round which is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/November-2019-prioritisation-decisions.pdf

NHS England and NHS Improvement are currently testing an alternative way to incorporate information on patient impact, with policy working groups drafting an initial report that is open to comments from patients, carers and clinicians when it is sent out for stakeholder testing. These reports will be tested for the first time at the CPAG prioritisation in November 2020.