Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department has taken to improve NHS procurement of new technology.

The Department is working closely with NHS England and NHS Supply Chain to improve National Health Service procurement of innovative medical technology.

Building on the work of NHS Supply Chain to consider the potential benefits and practical application of value-based procurement (VBP), we are developing a consistent methodology for VBP to be adopted at a national and local level. This aims to shift procurement decisions away from an emphasis on reducing product costs to consider technologies that represent a reduction in total costs within the patient pathway.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will undertake new Multi-Technology Evaluations of technologies in use and at a later stage in their lifecycle. These evaluations will enable comparisons between similar products, so that we can send a clear, evidence-based signal on value to NHS decision makers, clinicians, and patients.

The Department is consulting on proposals to update processes on applications to the Part IX of the drug tariff in primary care. The proposals include increasing patient input into decision making, recognising what makes a product valuable to a patient.