Speaking at the NHS Confederation Conference, NHS England chief executive, Simon Stevens announced that the NHS will provide a national reimbursement route for new innovations, to accelerate uptake of new medtech devices and apps for patients with diabetes, heart conditions, asthma, sleep disorders and obesity, as well as other key areas of health provision.
A new Innovation and Technology tariff category aims to remove the need for multiple local price negotiations, and instead guarantees 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, GPs and patients.
Mr Stevens also announced a new round of recruitment to the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme, which supports developers with tried-and-tested innovations to spread them further and faster across the health service.
