Meetings

NDM5700 David Rees (Aberafan)

The National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the report by the Health and Social Care Committee into access to medical technologies in Wales, which was laid in the Table Office on 17 December 2014.

Note: The response of the Minister for Health and Social Services was laid on 18 February 2015.

Supporting Documents

Health and Social Care Committee’s Report

Welsh Government’s Response

The item started at 15.17

NDM5700 David Rees (Aberafan)

The National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the report by the Health and Social Care Committee into access to medical technologies in Wales, which was laid in the Table Office on 17 December 2014.

The motion was agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

8.1 The Committee considered and agreed the draft report, subject to minor changes, for its inquiry into access to medical technologies in Wales.

Dr Mark Vaughan, Royal College of General Practitioners Wales

Dr Nazia Hussain, Royal College of General Practitioners Wales

Dr Peter Horvath-Howard, British Medical Association Cymru Wales

Dr Charles Allanby, British Medical Association Cymru Wales

5.1 The witnesses responded to questions from Members.

Dr Anna Kuczynska, GP Locality Director, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Charlotte Moar, Director of Finance, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Anthony Tracey, Assistant Director of Informatics, Hywel Dda University Health Board

4.1 Apologies were received from Anthony Tracey.

4.2 The witnesses responded to questions from Members.

8.1 The Committee considered the evidence received on the inquiry.

8.2 The Committee agreed to seek additional information from the BMA and RCGP on how much revenue funding is required, for example to cover training costs, in addition to the capital spend when introducing new technologies.

Andrew Bell, Social Services Improvement Agency

Sue Evans, Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru

David Williams, Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru

6.1 Apologies were received from David Williams.

6.2 The witnesses responded to questions from Members.

6.3 Sue Evans agreed to supply the Committee with additional information in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of the ‘3 million lives’ campaign in England, referenced in the ADSS’s written submission to the Committee. 

5.1 The Committee considered the key issues that have arisen from the inquiry.

5.2 The Committee noted its view that further exploration of access to medical technologies within primary care and social care is required before completing this inquiry. The Committee agreed to invite representatives from the British Medical Association, the Association of Directors of Social Services, Local Health Boards and Local Authorities, and any other relevant organisations, to explore these matters further.

Mark Drakeford AM, Minister for Health and Social Services

Ifan Evans, Deputy Director, Healthcare Innovation

Christine Morrell, Acting Chief Scientific Adviser (Health)

5.1 The Committee scrutinised the Minister for Health and Social Services on access to medical technologies in Wales.

Welsh Scientific Advisory Committee

·         Professor Huw Griffiths

·         Professor John Watkins

4.1 The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

All Wales Medicines Strategy Group

Professor Phil Routledge, Chairman

6.1     The witness responded to questions from Committee members.

Royal College of Physicians

Dr Alan Rees, Vice President for Wales.

Welsh Association for Gastroenterology and Endoscopy

Dr Miles Allison, Consultant Physician and Clinical Director of Gastroenterology, Vice President, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

Royal College of Surgeons

Jared Torkington, Consultant Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgeon, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

4.1.    The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

4.2.    Leighton Andrews AM requested a note from the Welsh Government on the example cited by Jared Torkington of a training scheme introduced in Wales for laparoscopic colorectal surgery.

Royal College of General Practitioners

Dr Nazia Hussain, Royal College of General Practitioners Wales

5.1.    The witness responded to questions from Committee members.

5.2.    Dr Nazia Hussain indicated that she would provide:

• a note on how the Royal College of General Practitioners considers the voice of patients in developing its approaches to technologies and innovation, and how the College believes the voice of patients should be considered in the appraisal and commissioning process;
• a note clarifying whether the use of medical technologies does or will form part of the revalidation process for GPs.

Velindre NHS Trust

Professor Peter Barrett-Lee, Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Medical Director.

Royal College of Radiologists Standing Welsh Committee

Dr Richard Clements, Chair of the Standing Welsh Committee,  Consultant Radiologist, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board;

Dr Martin Rolles, Secretary of the Standing Welsh Committee, Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board.

3.1.    The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

Professor Carl Heneghan, Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Oxford University

South East Wales Academic Health Science Partnership

Dr Corinne Squire, Manager

West of England Academic Health Science Network

Lars Sundstrom, Director of Enterprise and Translation

Deborah Evans, Managing Director

5.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

5.2 Lars Sundstrom, West of England Academic Health Science Network, agreed to provide a note on the new system that has been introduced in England (that is available to Welsh organisations) which allows access to funds and provides a method of commissioning research and development through the healthcare system.

Genetic Alliance UK

Buddug Cope, Director of Development for Genetic Alliance UK

Emma Hughes, Development Officer for Genetic Alliance UK

Hayley Norris, Patient representative

3.1 The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

3.2 Buddug Cope agreed to provide the Committee with information regarding the link between the NICE health technology programme and the UK Genetic Testing Network (UKGTN).

3.3 Ms Cope also agreed to provide the Committee with further clarification regarding the relationship between the approval of new tests by UKGTN and their subsequent commissioning by NHS Scotland.

Cancer Research UK

Emma Greenwood, Head of Policy Development, Cancer Research UK

Clare Bath, Public Affairs Officer for Wales

Dr Tom Crosby, Medical Clinical Director of Velindre Cancer Centre, and the Medical Director of the South Wales Cancer Network

Bernadette McCarthy, Radiotherapy Manager, Velindre Cancer Centre

2.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

2.2 Emma Greenwood informed the Committee of recent work undertaken in collaboration between Cancer Research UK and NHS England which asked relevant industry groups how they envisaged the field of radiography in 10 years. Ms Greenwood agreed to share information on this work with the Committee.

MediWales

Gwyn Tudor, Forum Manager

4.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

4.1 The Committee agreed to consider items 6, 7 and 8 before the consideration of item 5.

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

Mark Roscrow, Director, Procurement Services

Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory

Pete Phillips, Director

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Alun Tomkinson, ENT Surgeon

3.1 Mark Roscrow from the NHS Shared Services Partnership, Pete Phillips from the Surgical Testing Laboratory, and Alun Tomkinson from the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board responded to questions from committee members.

Local Health Boards

Fiona Jenkins, Executive Director of Therapies and Health Science, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Pushpinder Mangat, Interim Medical Director, Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board

Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee

Dr Geoffrey Carroll, Medical Director

Dr Phil Webb, Assistant Director

2.1 Fiona Jenkins from the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Pushpinder Mangat from Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board, and Dr Geoffrey Carroll and Dr Philip Webb from the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) responded to questions from committee members.

2.2 At the end of the session, Dr Webb agreed to provide a note to the Committee outlining one key recommendation that WHSSC would make to the Committee in relation to improving access to medical technologies in Wales and how this could be achieved.

Dr Susan Peirce

Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine

Professor Stephen Keevil, President

Professor Colin Gibson, Consultant Clinical Engineer

3.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

Professor Ceri Phillips, Professor of Health Economics, Swansea University

Professor David Cohen, Retired Professor of Health Economics at the University of South Wales

4.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

4.2. The Committee adjourned briefly during item 4 due to a technical difficulty.

Cedar

Dr Grace Carolan-Rees

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

Sally Chisholm

Dr Peter Groves, clinician and vice-chair of NICE’s Medical Technology Advisory Committee

2.1. The witnesses responded to questions from Committee members.

2.2. Sally Chisholm agreed to provide the following additional information:

• References to evidence exploring the factors that influence people – from a multi-disciplinary perspective – to decide whether or not to integrate individual technologies into their clinical practice;
• Further detail about which health bodies in Wales currently feed in to NICE’s development of guidance and overall work programme;
• Further detail about the incentivisation scheme – Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payments – in place in England to encourage uptake of innovation within the health service.

Karen Samuels, Head of HTA & Medicines Management, All Wales Therapeutics & Toxicology Centre

2.1. Karen Samuels responded to questions from Committee members.

2.2. Ms Samuels noted that the Welsh Analytical Prescribing Support Unit has been monitoring the usage of medicines appraised by AWMSG and NICE, and agreed to share the paper outlining the results of this monitoring with the Committee.

Dr Richard Greville, Director

Joanne Ferris, Policy & Project Executive

3.1. Dr Rick Greville responded to questions from Committee members.

3.2. In response to the Chair’s question relating to the ABPI’s experience of NICE’s Health Technologies Adoption Programme, Dr Greville noted that he did not have direct experience of this process but could seek further information on the Committee’s behalf.

3.3. During the course of the session, Dr Richard Greville agreed to provide the following additional information:

• a copy of the report recently commissioned by the ABPI (from the University of South Wales) on local barriers to the adoption of appraised medicines, due to be available by Easter 2014;
• a copy of the report being prepared by the Office of Health Economics, due to be available by Easter 2014, which will look at barriers to the adoption of appraised medicines that arise specifically as a consequence of planning and horizon-scanning challenges;
• examples relating to the take up, of lack thereof, of approved medicines in Wales, to include statistics illustrating Wales’s relative position to the other UK nations

Dr Alex Faulkner, expert adviser for the inquiry

5.1 The Committee received an introductory briefing from Dr Alex Faulkner, who has been appointed expert adviser to the Committee for the purposes of the inquiry into access into medical technologies in Wales.

7.1 The Committee discussed its access to medical technologies in Wales inquiry.

6.1 The Committee discussed it’s approach to the inquiry into access to medical technologies and agreed to seek to appoint an expert adviser, and agreed the draft role description for that adviser.

HSC(4)-18-13 paper 1

3.1 The Committee agreed the terms of reference.