Baroness Randerson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Randerson on 2016-02-02.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether funding will be provided to NHS Trusts as part of the Operational Delivery Network model to fund hepatitis C treatment services through either (1) a block contract, or (2) a tariff.
Lord Prior of Brampton
Operational Delivery Networks (ODNs) provide expert specialist oversight of prescribing decisions on hepatitis C. Funding has been provided via Commissioning and Quality Innovation Payment (CQUIN) and it is NHS England’s intention to continue with CQUIN funding in 2016/17 and 2017/18.
When a patient attends NHS services for treatment of hepatitis C, their attendance is included in the national tariff.
Depending on the specific nature of their healthcare need, their care may be paid for by clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) or by NHS England’s specialised services hubs according to coding and whether the care they receive is defined as a prescribed specialised service.
Some patients may have aspects of their hepatitis C treatment provided by other services (such as drugs and alcohol services) which are not funded by the NHS.
NHS England is the responsible commissioner for hepatitis C drugs. These are high cost drugs and so are excluded from the national tariff.
NHS England’s plan for future hepatitis C funding is being finalised at the moment. As NHS England are working with ODN clinical leads to plan to ensure that patients with unmet clinical need are treated via hepatitis C ODNs in a planned way over the coming years.
