The Oxford Academic Health Science Network (Oxford AHSN) supports a new national report which has clear recommendations to the UK government on reforms to speed up patients’ access to innovative medicines, technologies and products.
The Accelerated Access Review (AAR) aims to make the UK the best place in the world to design, develop and deliver healthcare innovations, with an NHS that embraces the new drugs and technologies that patients need.
The AAR has been led by an independent chair, Sir Hugh Taylor, supported by Prof Sir John Bell, the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, who was Chair of the External Advisory Group. There has been extensive engagement with industry, the NHS, patients, academia and clinicians during its development.
Supported by and developed with the 15 AHSNs covering England, the AAR proposes reforms to the UK health and care system and how it works with industry to address barriers to adopting innovation.
The NHS has huge potential to be creative and innovative yet the system as a whole is slow to adopt new ideas and best practice. This leads to avoidable variation in patient care and system inefficiencies.
The report offers practical system changes that will result in real benefits to patients, clinicians, the NHS and the wider UK economy. The report says streamlined processes could bring forward patient access to drugs by up to four years and patients will benefit from quicker access to medical technologies too.
It also recommends a simpler process for digital technologies which are often developed by smaller companies, such as healthcare apps for managing long-term conditions.
Elements that will be supported by AHSNs include creating an improved pathway for getting new medical technologies, diagnostics and digital products into the NHS at pace.
- The Accelerated Access Review final report can be found here.