The commitment to create a new Innovation and Technology Tariff was announced by NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens in June.
Following clinical review, the first six innovations have been selected as part of the new tariff, which aims to benefit women giving birth, patients with chronic lung problems, men having urological surgery, and acutely ill inpatients. NHS England is also, in parallel, backing new mobile technology solutions for diagnosing heart problems.
The new Innovation and Technology tariff will help cut the hassle experienced by clinicians and innovators in getting uptake and spread across the NHS. It will remove the need for multiple local price negotiations, and instead guarantee automatic reimbursement when an approved innovation is used, while at the same time allowing NHS England to negotiate national ‘bulk buy’ price discounts on behalf of hospitals and patients.
NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said: “The NHS has a proud track record of world firsts in medical innovation but getting wide uptake has often been far too slow. Our new payment system brings clarity on fast track funding to get groundbreaking new treatments and technologies to NHS patients. Many of them not only improve care but will save the NHS money too.”
The innovation categories which will join the national payment scheme are below, along with a collation of the evidence, training resources and launch events. The technical notes for implementation can be found in the resources section.
