NHS England has published its ‘MedTech Funding Mandate policy 2022/23: guidance for NHS commissioners and providers of NHS-funded care’.
This policy aims to direct the NHS on which MedTech innovations are effective and likely to give savings on investment; and to ensure the NHS has a sustainable approach to overcoming the financial barriers to adopting medical devices, diagnostics and digital products.
In its second year, effective from 1 April 2022, the MTFM policy is being expanded to include seven further technologies, across a variety of clinical conditions, with potential savings of £44 million. All the selected products enable high quality outcomes from treatment and depend on fewer resources, reducing theatre time and length of stay so that more patients across England can be treated quicker.
The policy guidance for 2021/22 stated that the criteria for 2022/23 would change: namely, that the 2021/22’s fifth criterion – previously supported through the ITT/ITP programmes – would be removed in 2022/23. Also, while the criterion for cost savings to be delivered within 12 months had the lowest support in the public consultation, it was retained for 2021/22 to ensure a focus on rapid return on investment while the NHS responds to the pandemic. This criterion has been changed to delivering savings within three years.
The 2021/22 technologies will remain on the MTFM policy as long as they continue to meet the criteria set out at paragraph 17, supported by the published NICE guidance.
The policy paper sets out the roles and responsibilities for various MFTM stakeholders such as NHS England, NHS Improvement, AHSN technology leads, suppliers of tech included on the policy, individual AHSNs, NHS commissioners and NHS providers.
With this policy for 2022/23 we will continue to ensure eligible patients can have equitable access to the best new medical technologies faster”, said Matthew Whitty, Chief Executive of the Accelerated Access Collaborative at NHS England NHS Improvement.
Please access the full policy paper here.
