Healthcare Sector: Clinicians

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support clinicians to become innovators and entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector.

My Lords, we are committed to supporting NHS staff to innovate and translate new ideas into improved patient care. We have recommissioned the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme for a further five years. We have also published NHS intellectual property guidance for NHS staff and organisations, which was last updated 24 years ago. Healthcare innovators can also benefit from the wider investment into innovation that is outlined within the 10-year health plan and the life sciences sector plan.

My Lords, may I please—

Order!

I thank my noble friend the Minister for her reply and welcome the Government’s commitment to innovation, but the actual programme has supported only a small fraction of the NHS workforce so far. I have met so many doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals in my career with innovative ideas that could improve patient care, reduce costs and improve productivity. Yet too often, these ideas get nowhere because there are no clear, accessible pathways to develop them, and we are losing out on so many innovators and innovations that would benefit not only our patients but the Treasury. Does my noble friend the Minister agree that we now need an NHS entrepreneurship workforce strategy that could truly make our NHS the Silicon Valley of health innovation? If so, what steps could the Government take to give every NHS staff member protected time, training, mentoring incentives and accessible, clear pathways to develop and scale their innovative ideas?

I certainly agree with my noble friend that there is a rich seam of intellectual capital among the 1.5 million NHS staff in our country. I am glad to say that the clinical entrepreneur programme is already a world leader in healthcare entrepreneurship, as my noble friend looks for. It has supported over 1,800 NHS staff and 690 start-ups, and it has raised more than £1.2 billion. We have now doubled the baseline annual funding for the programme. Yes, I agree that a clear pathway to adoption is vital, so we are expanding the health innovation networks, because they will provide the necessary support.

My Lords, I apologise to the Minister and to the House for my breach of protocol. There is a serious question here. Innovation is a very important part of what the NHS does, and it is very good at it, but I am keen to understand what we are doing to allow our consultants and doctors to innovate to get the backlog under control. I speak from personal experience, but I am not going to talk about my hip, my heart, my kidneys, and goodness knows what else. The point is that many of these individuals cannot clear their backlog because they fear that they are going to be hauled before the CEO of the NHS for breaching their budget. That is an issue.

That is exactly the reason why we need to encourage innovation and take advantage of all the improvements now available to us, including AI. It is by modernising our approach that we will move forward greatly. That is why we are building the practicalities, as I described in my Answer just now, as well as a culture of innovation. We are also providing the ability to see adoption, because people are rightly concerned if time is spent on innovation but the product or service never comes forward. We are changing a number of points to improve that.

My Lords, in a growing number of hospitals, clinicians are using at-home bladder cancer testing to reduce the number of cystoscopies and speed up diagnosis. Can the Minister expand on how the Government will help clinician-led innovations such as this to spread across the NHS, so that access does not depend on where a patient lives?

Yes, I am very pleased to do that. I point to the National Healthtech Access Programme, which is exactly what the noble Baroness is seeking. It is a route for cost-effective and clinically effective technologies, such as the one the noble Baroness describes, so that we can see the best benefit to patients and the best value, and that supports more equitable access. NICE is currently assessing three projects, including using AI in histopathology for the diagnosis of prostate cancer and breast cancer, to give two examples, and we will shortly see the publication of those results.

My Lords, the Minister quite rightly alluded to the clinical entrepreneur programmes, and she might want to say a bit more about how successful they have been. Does she agree that, for these programmes to succeed in making clinical departments more innovative, we need strong academic departments working together with universities and teaching hospitals?

I certainly agree with that, because there are many aspects to this. On the successes of the clinical entrepreneur programme—some of which I have mentioned—we now know that, as of June, that over 10,500 occurrences of innovation are being adopted by organisations. That has resulted in the creation of over 5,100 jobs, and 448 NHS staff have been retained by, or have returned to, the NHS to be part of the programme. This is an extremely active area that will greatly contribute to services for patients: better care and safety, as well as tackling waiting times.

My Lords, can I ask about entrepreneurs who are not clinicians but have a product or service that could improve health or social care? For them, there is no obvious front door to the NHS, so they spend ages trying to get into the system at primary care, trust or ICB level, and, sadly, some give up or go abroad. Could I suggest that the new Minister for Technology and Innovation, when they are appointed, creates a front door or one-stop shop to triage those who approach them? They could distinguish between salespeople with no real product, those who have a product but need more support, and those who have a fantastic product that could save lives now and that we could pilot as quickly as possible. Can the Minister make that suggestion to the new Minister for Technology within health?

Those important discussions will take place. I refer the noble Lord to the Life Sciences Sector Plan, which followed on from the 10-year health plan and which addresses exactly the point he rightly makes. I also refer him to the updated NHS intellectual property guidance, which provided organisations that provide or commission NHS services with much clearer routes to identify, protect and commercialise innovation. That, along with a number of other steps we are taking, will do what he seeks, which is important.

My Lords, some three months ago I visited the Institute of Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden Hospital. I met several clinicians and research scientists, who were clear that innovation was vital in bringing forward therapies to deal with the various types of cancer. But they said that there was one gap: in the funding for university research. So, as a follow-up to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Patel, what additional funding will the Government provide to university research to ensure that new therapies can come that will accelerate improvements in cancer care?