Cancer: Medical Treatments
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that NICE guidelines on access to minimally invasive cancer therapies is followed.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The adoption of new treatments, including minimally invasive cancer treatments, into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institution of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance and/or commissioner decisions. Both NHS England and integrated care boards are required to put in place access for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by NICE.
Where treatments are approved by NICE through the Technology Appraisals programme, the NHS is required to make them available within agreed timescales, which vary by technology. Implementation of any NICE approvals will be supported by the service readiness assessment and the development of additional capacity where necessary.
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