The MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) is an NHS Long Term Plan commitment to getting selected NICE-approved cost-saving devices, diagnostics and digital products to NHS patients more quickly.

The MTFM policy strives to ensure healthcare providers enable equitable access to selected, proven products, with funding provided from commissioners’ existing allocations. The policy implementation is supported across England’s ICSs by the Health Innovation Network.

The aim of the policy is to accelerate equitable patient access to medical technologies that are clinically effective, provide cost saving in three years (as determined by NICE) and are affordable to the NHS (costs not exceeding £20 million), by supporting their implementation and scaling (adoption and spread). 

To achieve the aim, the objectives of the MTFM policy are to:

• Mandate commissioners to fund the MTFM technologies when clinically appropriate
• Ensure equity in healthcare provision is achieved by monitoring patient access to the supported technologies across the NHS in England
• Direct the NHS to the medical technology innovations that are most effective and likely to give savings on investment.
• Support the NHS to develop a sustainable approach to overcoming the financial barriers to adopting medical devices, diagnostics and digital products.

From April 2025, HINs are supporting the implementation of one technology. The policy can be found here.

Aposhealth supported by the MedTech Funding Mandate in 2025/26

AposHealth (NICE Guidance MTG76.) is a non-invasive device worn on the feet to reduce pain and improve function in patients with knee osteoarthritis. The device consists of a pair of AposHealth shoes with 2 curved pods (pertupods) on the heel and forefoot of each shoe.
AposHealth has been recommended as a cost-saving option to manage knee osteoarthritis in adults when the follow criteria apply:

• non-surgical standard care has not worked well enough and
• a patient’s condition meets the referral criteria for total knee replacement surgery but they do not want surgery and

Technologies - Why were these technologies selected for inclusion in the MTFM policy?

NICE Diagnostic and Medical Technology guidance were reviewed for technologies that meet the following three criteria:

Effective - Based on positive NICE guidance that evidences; clinical effectiveness, improved patient recovery & are time releasing

Cost saving within 3 years - NICE modelling demonstrates a net saving in the first 3 years of implementing the technology

Affordable to the NHS - The budget impact should not exceed £20 million, in any of the first three years

Technologies that have reached a good level of widescale adoption & spread and therefore have graduated from HIN support include:

Four technologies are alternative treatments to transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for benign prostatic hyperplasia: 

• Greenlight – this is a surgical device that uses a laser to reduce the size of an enlarged prostate 

• Rezum – this is a surgical device that uses water vapour to destroy excess prostate tissue 

• Plasma System – this is a surgical device that uses electrodes to cut out prostate tissue 

• UroLift – lifts and holds the enlarged prostate tissue away from the urethra, relieving the compression of this organ. 

The three technologies are an alternative to more invasive procedures: 

• Spectra Optia – is a apheresis and cell collection platform for people with sickle cell disease who require automated red cell exchange 
  
• XprESS Multi Sinus Dilation System – is a sterile, single-use device treating chronic sinusitis with a dilating balloon.
• Thopaz+ – is a portable digital chest drain system which accurately monitors and records air leak and fluid drainage. 

• gammaCore - this is a handheld, patient-controlled, non-invasive vagus nerve stimulator. It is used for preventing and treating cluster headaches
• SecurAcath – a device that secures catheters without requiring sutures or adhesives 
• Heartflow® – a non-invasive personalised cardiac test that reduces the need for unnecessary procedures
• Placental growth factor (PIGF) based testing – tests for early diagnosis of preeclampsia in pregnant women, which if unmonitored, can cause serious complications for mother and baby 

These technologies, while not within the commission for support by HINs are still supported by the MedTech Funding Mandate policy, whereby, they are still excluded from the associated core payment mechanisms or prices within the NHS Payment Scheme 23-25, they are instead chargeable as passthrough items.