Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2019 to Question 239204 on Ophthalmology, whether the NHS Improvement impact assessment (a) covers changes affecting patient access to combined Minimally Invasive Glaucoma Surgery (MIGS) and cataract operation and (b) recognises the procedure as a common practice; and whether the new tariff price was assessed to cover cataract and MIGS as a single operation.

In considering the proposed prices for the 2019/20 national tariff, the ophthalmology Clinical Expert Working Group (EWG) specifically stated that minimally invasive glaucoma surgery (MIGS) and cataract activity are commonly done together and it would not usually be in the patient’s best interest to do them separately. The prices assigned to HRG BZ91 in the 2019/20 tariff cover cataract and MIGS as a single operation. The EWG and Royal College of Ophthalmology agreed that the BZ91 prices were appropriate, relative to the prices for other ophthalmology procedures.