Whilst in a meeting at a GP practice a doctor said something that really resonated with me, they said “we are all recruited by patients to serve the patients”. 

The Innovation Technology Payment or ‘ITP’ programme which is delivered in partnership with the country’s 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs), works to support NHS organisations to adopt a number of selected evidence-based innovative solutions. The scheme has been running since 2017 (although in a different guise previously), and a new selection of exciting innovations has just been announced – you can find out more about these here.

It is the job of the AHSNs to work with health and care providers to establish whether these innovations are suitable (not every innovation is suitable for every clinical setting) and where they are suitable act as a broker to link together the provider with NHS organisation to get these innovations to patients faster.

When looking at the ITP programme, I can see how the innovations the programme is supporting add benefits. Benefit (I believe) is measured in many ways, benefit for quality, benefit for the tax payer, benefit for the whole health economy and ultimately benefit to people’s lives. 

One of the products on the ITP programme is The UroLift® System. In short, the UroLift System aims to treat symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) which enlarges the prostate. The symptoms can very disruptive and troubling for a patient and can include a frequent need and/or difficulty to urinate. This innovation removes the need for invasive surgery or medication and is a more efficient intervention. This week I met a consultant that has been using this product. He told me that wherever patients were viable to use this product he did so, as the alternative resulted in a three day hospital stay whereas with UroLift the patient was in and out in one day.

Hemant Nemade, Consultant Urologist at Northampton General Hospital was recently interviewed by BBC Radio Northampton and when discussing Urolift he said: “All the invasive procedures which are done for enlargement of prostate normally would take a couple of hours, so you can imagine the amount of time we free up which can be used for other procedures…I cannot describe in words the revolutionary nature of this procedure – the advantages are for the patient, for the hospital and for the NHS as a whole.”

This innovation highlights exactly why NHS England instigated the ITP programme in the first place, a number of benefits which all result in an overall benefit to the patient. This innovation specifically provides:

• benefit of quality as it was a non-evasive procedure (when faced with the alternative)
• benefit to the tax payer as this procedure net costs were far cheaper than the alternative
• benefits to the health economy as the bed in the hospital could now be used for other patients
• and maybe most importantly benefit to the patient as it minimised the disruption to their lives, which shouldn’t be understated.

In the health and care system, regardless of our role, we are all recruited by the patient to serve the patient and by adopting advances in technology and introducing this into the system, we can continue to make advancements which offer a true and tangible benefits to people.

Author 

Andrew Oxby - ITP Programme Manager