MTG Policy Statements
The Health Bill
Parliamentary Briefing from the Medical Technology Group
The Health Bill states that its aim is to ‘improve the quality of NHS care and services and to improve public health’. It will also provide the legal framework for a number of the proposals contained in Lord Darzi’s report - National Health Service Next Stage Review - published in June last year.
The Medical Technology Group (MTG) is a coalition of patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers working to make medical technologies available to everyone who needs them. We welcome the introduction of the Health Bill, but urge further development of its provision to ensure that the Bill delivers on its ambition of improving the quality of care patients receive.
Uptake of medical technologies in the UK is not currently as good as it should be. The UK spends just 4.5% of its healthcare budget on technology, compared with a European average of 6.3%. This leads to British patients missing out, for example life saving pacemakers are implanted in Germany at twice the UK rate.
Three of the Bill’s provisions could be used to help address these problems:
1. The new NHS Constitution, which sets out the responsibilities of patients and staff.
2. The new scheme by which prizes for innovation in health services provision can be awarded.
3. The pilot scheme for direct payments for health services, which is intended to give patients greater control over the health care services they receive.
The NHS Constitution
The NHS Constitution will establish the “principles and values” of the NHS in England. It sets out rights to which patients, public and staff are entitled, and pledges which the NHS is committed to achieving, together with responsibilities which the public, patients and staff owe to one another to ensure that the NHS operates fairly and effectively. All NHS bodies and private and third sector providers supplying NHS services will be required by law to take account of this Constitution in their decisions and actions.
The Constitution will be renewed every ten years. The Health Bill will also require the Secretary of State for Health to publish a report every three years on how the Constitution has affected patients, staff and members of the public.
The MTG believes that the pledges in the NHS Constitution should be legally binding to ensure all patients benefit from its advances.
Innovation Prizes
The Bill sets out the Government’s intention to create prizes for innovations that directly benefit patients and the wider public. Prizes will be open to everyone working in the health service and many honorary appointments – people working in the health service but not necessarily employed by it.
The prize fund will be around £20 million. There will also be an allocation of £1 million towards the administration, spread over the three-year period. To distribute the funds, a 10-strong expert panel will be established, consisting of leading medical scientists, people in hospital management, economists and other academic representation.
Innovations are vital if standards of care are to continue to rise despite budgetary limitations.
One of the barriers to use of effective medical technologies is the conservatism of healthcare professionals. Like all of us, many continue to use the same interventions and methods with which they are familiar, rather that make use of newer practices and techniques. Unfortunately this can act against the patient’s interests, as, depending on whether one is treated by a progressive or conservative doctor, the treatment offered will vary. For example the UK is estimated by the Royal College of Surgeons to be 15 years behind comparable companies for the use of laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer, as pioneered by Lord Darzi. It attributes this to, among other things, factionalism and over-specialisation among surgeons. Innovation Prizes could be used to overcome this aversion, and encourage the use of new treatments.
Adoption of best practice in medical practice is crucial to improving the quality of care in the NHS. For this reason, we would like to see the Innovation Prizes explicitly recognise the work of progressive healthcare professionals and their teams, whose approach demonstrably improves the quality of life of their patients.
Direct Payments
The Bill aims to progress measures that will give patients greater personalisation and control over the health care they receive by enabling the introduction of pilots for direct payments for healthcare.
Personal budgets are already well established within social care, and their success led to calls for similar arrangements across health budgets. Specifically, the Bill gives PCTs the power to provide cash payments to individuals. Other types of “personal” budgets in health are already part of the mix of provision - including notional budgets held by commissioners, and budgets that are managed by entrusted third parties – direct payments are the next step in patient-directed commissioning.
There is currently little clarity on what direct payments would cover. The MTG believes it would be beneficial to undertake a pilot study or programme that would enable patients to become better educated about the treatment options and make better informed decisions, in conjunction with their health care provider, about the range of treatment options, their benefits, and ultimately, which technologies or treatments would best suit their needs. For example, where clinically appropriate, patients with diabetes may determine that they want the benefits of insulin pump therapy, and use a direct payment to fund the purchase of an insulin pump.
About the MTG
The MTG is a coalition of patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers working to make medical technologies available to everyone who needs them. The group seeks to inform policy-makers about the benefits of medical technologies and patients about the options available to them which could help them enjoy a better quality of life.
For more information please contact Hannah Marwood, MTG Secretariat: 020 7067 0424/ hmarwood@webershandwick.com
