Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
NHS hospitals will be able to get access to medical innovations approved anywhere across the sprawling health service under government plans to save money and cut waiting times.
Currently, each of the 215 NHS trusts in England is required to ensure any new piece of equipment or technology — such as a new material for dressing wounds, or rapid flu-testing kits — is rigorously assessed and approved before being used in its hospitals or clinics.
But an “innovator passport” scheme will allow new technologies approved by one trust to be used by all others, under a long-awaited plan intended to revitalise the struggling health service over the coming decade.
The 10-year plan, to be detailed on Thursday, is intended to reset a service that has been battling rising waiting times and falling public satisfaction despite receiving an ever-rising budget from central government.
Introduced over the next two years, the Department of Health and Social Care said the passport scheme — which is provided by MedTech Compass — will remove “needless bureaucracy” that saps time and money.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said patients will also no longer face a postcode lottery of whether products are used in their area, and will also cut barriers to businesses hoping to bring innovations to market.
“For too long, Britain’s leading scientific minds have been held back by needless admin that means suppliers are repeatedly asked for the same data in different formats by different trusts — this is bad for the NHS, patients and bad for business,” Streeting said.
“These innovator passports will save time and reduce duplication, meaning our life sciences sector — a central part of our 10-year health plan — can work hand-in-hand with the health service and make Britain a powerhouse for medical technology.”
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation that represents health managers, said not all NHS organisations are at the same stage of digital maturity, and “so this will affect their ability to either innovate or implement preapproved innovation in this passport model.”
The Financial Times previously reported on calls by frontline workers for basic NHS infrastructure to be brought up to a minimum standard before politicians extol the virtues of cutting-edge tech.
Taylor said the new “innovator passport” was a “positive step” towards reducing duplication and streamlining how technology is rolled out across the health service.
However, he cautioned “it will be vital to ensure that important compliance processes are also kept in place to safeguard clinical and patient safety, data protection and strict Medtech regulation”.
Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health organisations across England, said: “We welcome any measures which cut red tape and help trusts get proven and effective technology on to the frontline faster to boost patient care and free staff from time-consuming admin.”
