UK

In January 2019, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published six new interventional procedure guidance, three medical technologies guidance, and three new MedTech innovation briefings for liver function capacity test, a functional electrical stimulation (FES) integrated cycling system used to start muscle contraction to stimulate trunk and limb muscles in people with spinal cord injury, laser shoe attachment used as a walking aid and is designed to help prevent freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's disease.

The NHS Long Term Plan, released on 7th of January 2019, will save almost half a million more lives with practical action on significant killer conditions and investment in world-class, cutting edge treatments including genomic tests for every child with cancer. Local NHS allocated £570 billion to fund the NHS Long Term Plan.

On January 31, 2019, NHS England and NHS Improvement launched the statutory consultation on the proposed 2019/20 national tariff. The consultation period ends at midnight, at the end of 21 February 2019.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develop and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. New procedure codes concern robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedures, 2-dimensional radiotherapy, revision of anti-reflux operations, etc. The codes are introduced with a recommended adoption date being the 1st of May 2019. The document also contains a list of textual changes in codes and an updated list of unacceptable combinations of codes.

In December 2018, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new diagnostic guidance (for tumour profiling tests to guide adjuvant chemotherapy decisions in early breast cancer), two new interventional procedure guidance (for transcutaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation for oropharyngeal dysphagia in adults and bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma), and four MedTech innovation briefings.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In October/November 2018 new code for bilateral US Doppler vascular limb was added to the CCSD Schedule.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development (CCSD) group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In October/November 2018, five new procedure codes for laser correction of refractive error following non-refractive ophthalmic surgery, insertion of urethral catheterization device, injection of botulinum toxin for hyperhidrosis, laparoscopic and robotic-assisted pancreatoduodenectomy have been added to the CCSD Schedule.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In October, one new diagnostic code.

The Clinical Coding and Schedule Development Group develops and maintains procedural and diagnostics nomenclature for private payers in England. In October, eight new procedure codes for operations on joints, morcellation of uterine leiomyomas, transurethral water vapour and water jet ablation for lower urinary tract symptoms and transoral surgery have been added to the CCSD Schedule.

In October, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new interventional procedure guidance for selective internal radiation therapy for unresectable primary intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, one updated medical technologies guidance endoluminal stent graft system designed for treating aneurysms and dissections of the thoracic aorta and one new medical technologies guidance for a titanium implant intended for use in people with chronic sacroiliac joint pain and three new medtech innovation briefings for device used for babies and children up to 30 kg who need mechanical ventilation, gammaCore for cluster headache and system that delivers warmed and humidified respiratory gases, including at high-flow rates.

In partnership with NHS England, NHS Improvement has set out some of the principal proposed changes to the payment system in 2019/20. The proposals include a change of the default way of paying for urgent and emergency care (moving away from episodic prices), recalculated market forces factor values and options for how the tariff might be used to fund the new NHS supply chain organisation.

In the draft guideline for management of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse NICE recommended to offer a full range of non-surgical options to women with stress urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse before any operations.