Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-07-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to ensure that (a) clinicians and (b) patients participate in the decision making process for the routine commissioning of procedures under the Commissioning through Evaluation Programme.

David Mowat

The policy development process for specialised commissioning is subject to both informal stakeholder testing and formal public consultation, including the opportunity for patients, clinicians and industry representatives to review and comment on the evidence base considered and the assessed impact on patients, existing services and cost.

In addition, clinical commissioning policies are already primarily developed through Clinical Reference Groups which comprise of a range of stakeholders including patients, carers and clinicians.