PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Incontinence: Products (22 June 2023)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of value based procurement decisions for incontinence products on (a) system costs for the (i) NHS and (ii) social care sector and (b) patient outcomes.

Asked by:
Andrew Western (Labour)

We are working to improve spend data systems through implementation of the Government’s Medical Technology Strategy. There are different supply routes available in the NHS, including through NHS Supply Chain, NHS Shared Business Services, direct from supplier to Trust and via prescription on Part IX of the Drug Tariff. NHS Supply Chain are currently in the process of working on two separate value-based procurement projects for continence, both of which aim to concentrate on patient outcomes.

Regulation 68 of the Public Contract Regulations (PCR) 2015 allows contracting authorities to determine the most economically advantageous tender and the lowest cost by using a life-cycle costing approach which includes all costs over the life cycle of works, supplies or services.

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of health services, including urinary incontinence for their local health economy and taking into account guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NHS England’s Excellence in Continence Care guidance published in July 2018, indicates that personalised care including personal health budgets can be arranged locally by ICBs to help people manage and pay for their continence care needs.

Answered by:
Will Quince (Conservative)
29 June 2023