Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the recent decision by NICE to change the way medicines and other health technologies are evaluated for use in the NHS, how they will ensure fast-tracking any true innovation is supported by the NICE MedTech Innovation Briefing (MIB) or other "sufficient evidence" into the relevant concurrent NHS Supply Chain Framework agreement, in order to facilitate the opportunity and time to enable the gathering of "sufficient evidence".

The Medtech Funding Mandate was introduced in April 2021 to support the use of clinically effective and cost-saving medical devices, diagnostics and digital technologies that have been recommended through the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s (NICE) medical technologies or diagnostics guidance. NHS Supply Chain is the agreed route for the first four products selected by NHS England and NHS Improvement to be funded in 2021/22.

NICE’s Medtech innovation briefings are designed to support National Health Service and social care commissioners and staff considering using new medical devices and other medical or diagnostic technologies. The briefings do not constitute NICE guidance but are designed to be fast, flexible and responsive to the need for information on innovative technologies.