Announcement roundup: Catch up on the latest health and life sciences news!
Recent weeks have seen a range of new announcements and initiatives launched, with significant implications for the future of the UK’s technology, health and life sciences industries.
From new feedback opportunities to shape the future of the National Health Service in England, to multiple changes and announcements from core regulatory organisations, plans to create a MedTech circular economy, reduce NHS waste and improve patient safety, continue reading to catch up on the latest developments!
Government welcomes views on new NHS Ten Year Plan
The Government have launched a new online platform Change.NHS.uk to welcome feedback from the public, NHS staff and experts on the future of the health service. The announcement forms part of the Government’s ambition to develop a Ten Year Health Plan for England and make three key “shifts” to create services which are more digitised, community-based, and have a greater focus on prevention.
The creation of the RIO forms part of the Government’s ambition to drive economic growth through regulatory reform and will focus on increasing public access to new and innovative technologies by reducing regulatory approval timescale. At first, the RIO will focus on four “initial growth areas”:
Artificial intelligence and digital in healthcare
Engineering biology
Connected and autonomous technology
Space
MHRA publishes next phase of plans for 2024-2025
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has launched their business plan for the 2024-25 year. With a focus on increasing access, not only for established products, but also for new innovations, the plan focuses on four strategic priorities:
Maintaining public trust through transparency and proactive communication, including working to address health inequalities
Enabling healthcare access to new, safe and effective medical products
Delivering scientific and regulatory excellence through strategic partnerships
Becoming an agency where people flourish alongside a responsive customer service culture
Under the second priority, the MHRA commits to launching “new digital tools to improve delivery of regulatory services for all who use them”, under which several digitally focused commitments are made, such as:
Delivering a second release of RegulatoryConnect;
Making improvements to reporting systems to detect and take action on safety issues for regulated health products;
Delivering new digital services to support more streamlined clinical trials.
Fee uplifts feature as part of MHRA statutory fee alterations
The report makes seven key recommendations needed to make “rapid improvements” to the CQC’s operations, including “rebuilding expertise” and efforts to “resurrect credibility”. A summary of the recommendations are as follows:
Rapidly improve operational performance, fix the provider portal and regulatory platform, improve use of performance data within CQC, and improve the quality and timeliness of reports.
Rebuild expertise within the organisation and relationships with providers in order to resurrect credibility.
Review the Single Assessment Framework and how it is implemented to ensure it is fit for purpose, with clear descriptors, and a far greater focus on effectiveness, outcomes, innovative models of care delivery and use of resources.
Clarify how ratings are calculated and make the results more transparent.
Continue to evolve and improve local authority assessments.
Formally pause ICS assessments.
Strengthen sponsorship arrangements to facilitate CQC’s provision of accountable, efficient and effective services to the public.
The publication of the final report follows the announcement that Sir Julian Hartley will be the new Chief Executive of the CQC, which he will move onto once he departs from his current role as Chief Executive of NHS Providers.
The first of the two reviews announced is expected to focus on the “roles and remits” of six regulatory organisations (below), whilst the second review is anticipated to focus on quality and governance.
CQC, including the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme (MNSI)
National Guardian’s Office (NGO)
Healthwatch England (HWE) and the Local Healthwatch (LHW) network
Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB)
Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC)
NHS Resolution (quality and safety functions only)
New MedTech Strategy to address NHS waste, improve sustainability and drive growth
The Department of Health and Social Care has published a new strategy, a Design for Life Roadmap, which sets out six “problem statements” and plans to reduce the significant waste resulting from single-use medical devices within the NHS. The six problem statements include:
Leadership and alignment
Behavioural change
Commercial incentivisation
Regulations and standards
Physical and digital infrastructure
Transformative innovation
The Roadmap is guided by overall vision that “by 2045 the UK will have transitioned away from all avoidable single-use medtech products”, and forms part of the Government's ambitions to develop a circular economy for medical technology, improve sustainability and drive economic growth. The strategy sets out four overarching objectives of:
Boosting UK growth
Improving NHS resilience
Reducing waste and emissions
Generating cost savings
Plans are also set out within the Roadmap to tackle significant levels of waste generated by the NHS, with striking figures estimating that currently 133,000 tonnes of plastic are thrown away by the NHS every year.
OLS publishes recommendations to grow the UK life sciences sector
The Office for Life Sciences has published a report setting out a variety of recommendations to strengthen the UK life sciences sector. The report developed by KPMG was commissioned with the intention of informing future Government policy, with a view to creating a more supportive environment for HealthTech innovation, manufacturing, and commercialisation in the UK.
The five key focus areas for the report include:
Research and Development, which sees recommendations around improving regulatory processes and demandsignalling, as well as supporting hospital and healthtech collaboration to aid real-world testing.
Manufacturing, which includes recommendations to develop a strategy for healthtech manufacturing and to provide purchasing guidance for NHS Trusts to simplify compliance requirements for manufacturers.
Funding, on which recommendations outline the need for private investment as well as increased supportive measures for SMEs including:
greater accessibility of public funding and streamlined funding application processes;
increased focus on translation funding;
greater focus on non-Southeast SME support,
Commercialisation and NHS procurement, which emphasises the need for a value-based procurement approach and greater SME support to support international market access;
Sector representation and data infrastructure, which advocates for establishing healthtech-focused research programmes, collecting better business data to inform resource allocation, and supporting greater involvement of SMEs in policymaking processes.
Virtual reality and wearable technology pilot to cut drug deaths
The Government have announced £12 million funding to 11 projects based within 8 different organisations across the UK, which are aiming to reduce drug-related deaths and improve outcomes for people using drugs using new innovative technologies. The funding is derived from the Office for Life Science’s Additional Healthcare Goals programme.
The projects supported include the use of a variety of technologies such as wearable devices which monitor vital signs and patches which deliver drugs such as naloxone and flumazenil to combat the risk of drug overdose. Several funded projects are based in Scotland, which currently has the highest rate of drug deaths in Europe.
New government tech deals boost the business of cancer detection
A series of public-private partnerships have been unveiled to drive research into cancer diagnostics and therapeutics as part of a UK Research and Innovation announcement of £118 million funding for five new hubs combining academic, industry, and charity sector expertise focused on developing new health technologies.
The announcement was made in conjunction with the Government’s International Investment Summit as part of the Government’s vocal commitment to grow the UK life sciences sector. Projects supported as part of the funds set out will focus on identifying solutions for faster cancer diagnoses and more effective treatments, using technologies such as artificial intelligence and exploring more personalised and innovative treatments, such as micro-dosing.
Robert Walker
Head of Health & Social Care, techUK
Robert Walker
Head of Health & Social Care, techUK
Robert joined techUK in October 2022, where he is now Programme Manager for Health and Social Care.
Robert previously worked at the Pension Protection Fund, within the policy and public affairs team. Prior to this, he worked at the Scottish Parliament, advising politicians and industry stakeholders on a wide range of issues, including rural crime and health policies.
Robert has a degree in Politics and International Relations (MA Hons) from the University of Aberdeen, with a particular focus on strategic studies and energy security. Outside of work he enjoys activities such as running, rugby, boxing and cooking!
Junior Programme Manager, Health and Care Team, techUK
Viola Pastorino
Junior Programme Manager, Health and Care Team, techUK
Viola Pastorino is a policy, governance, and strategic communication specialist.
She joined techUK as the Junior Programme Manager in the Health and Care Team in April 2024.
She has obtained a Bachelor of Sciences in Governance, Economics, and Development from Leiden University, and a Master's programme in Strategic Communications at King's College London. Her academic background, leading up to a dissertation on AI policy influence and hands-on campaign development, is complemented by practical experience in international PR and grassroots project management.
She is skilled in qualitative and quantitative analysis and comfortable communicating findings to varying stakeholders. Above all, she is deeply passionate about the intersection of technology and government, especially how technology and global discourse shape one another, the processes that lead to belief polarisation and radicalisation of communities, and crafting strategic narratives that steer public discourse.
Outside of work she loves reading, live music light operation, and diving.
Clara Hewitt
Programme Manager, Health and Social Care, techUK
Clara Hewitt
Programme Manager, Health and Social Care, techUK
Clara joined techUK in October 2023. She brings experience across a range of domestic and global health issues, with particular focus on digital health, HIV/AIDS and climate change and health.
Clara holds an MSc in Global Health and Development (University College London) and a BSc in Psychology (University of Birmingham).
Tracy Modha
Team Assistant - Markets, techUK
Tracy Modha
Team Assistant - Markets, techUK
Tracy supports several areas at techUK, including Cyber Exchange, Cyber Security, Defence, Health and Social Care, Local Public Services, Nations and Regions and National Security.
Tracy joined techUK in March 2022, having worked in the education sector for 19 years, covering administration, research project support, IT support and event/training support. My most outstanding achievement has been running three very successful international conferences and over 300 training courses booked all over the globe!
Tracy has a great interest in tech. Gaming and computing have been a big part of her life, and now electric cars are an exciting look at the future. She has warmed to Alexa, even though it can sometimes be sassy!
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