WIREDGOV

NHS England has today announced the results of the first of two prioritisation rounds to decide which new specialised commissioning treatments and services will be made available for patients for the 2018/19 financial year.

An initial three new treatments and services were approved for funding including a treatment for HIV, a new specialised service for adults with primary ciliary dyskinesia, a genetic disorder affecting the respiratory system, and a new specialised service for Stevens-Johnson syndrome, a serious disorder of the skin.

Funding for the new treatments and services will begin from April and will benefit an estimated 3000 patients in the first year and thousands more annually after that.

All the proposed new treatments were independently assessed for their clinical benefit and cost by the Clinical Priorities AdvisoryGroup (CPAG) made up of doctors, health experts and patient representatives.

The prioritisation process for new investment decisions has now moved from an annual cycle to twice a year, in order to speed up the introduction of important new evidence-based treatments and services for patients. Today’s announcement represents the first set of decisions for investment in 2018/19 with a second set of prioritisation decisions to be taken next May.

Further treatments from this list, and other areas, will be considered in May, and if successful could be introduced by June.

Prioritisation results

Treatments are grouped into five levels of priority, with those that cost less and offer more clinical benefit for patients classified as level one, and treatments with the lowest clinical benefit and highest cost placed in the lowest category (level five).

At this time we are approving treatments in levels one and two and the new service proposal in level three. The remaining two treatments in level three will continue to remain available to NHS patients via the Cancer Drugs Fund. All other treatments listed will be considered again at the second round in May 2018.

Level 1:

• Service Specification for patients with Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (SJS-TEN) (all ages)

Level 2:

• Immediate antiretroviral therapy for treatment of HIV-1 in adults and adolescents

Level 3:

• Service Specification for adults with the genetic condition, primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD)
• Bendamustine with rituximab for first line treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Bendamustine with rituximab for first line treatment of mantle cell lymphoma

Level 4:

• Artificial cornea for corneal blindness
• Inhaled therapy for people with cystic fibrosis and lung infections caused by bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa
• Bendamustine with rituximab for treatment of relapsed mantle cell lymphoma

Level 5:

• No proposals fell into level 5