Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government plans to take to (a) promote innovation within the NHS and (b) support existing drives for innovation such as the recently commissioned stroke treatment mechanical thrombectomy.

NHS England is working to develop well-staffed and effective units capable of delivering high quality thrombectomy. NHS England is supporting networking between thrombectomy centres to cover extended daytime hours while service development is under discussion in each of the regions. Full 24/7 implementation of this relatively new technique across the country will take time. NHS England will explore the possibility of providing care to patients in remote areas using helicopter transfer.

NHS England is initially proposing to set up 24 thrombectomy centres providing care 24 hours a day, seven days a week which would require a minimum of five interventional clinicians for each centre (120 clinicians). Ultimately NHS England expects to need at least 30 centres to provide equitable geographical coverage, which would require 150 interventionists.

To strengthen the available workforce, models of training are being discussed by Health Education England (HEE) and the General Medical Council (GMC). HEE is developing models of training for interventional radiologists and a credential model in collaboration with the GMC.

NHS services in Scotland and Wales are matters for the Scottish and Welsh Governments.