Dame Caroline Dinenage, Member of Parliament for Gosport and Former Minister of State at the Department of Health & Social Care, hosted a Westminster Hall debate on medical technology regulation.
In the debate, Caroline urged the Minister, Will Quince MP, to capitalise on the opportunity to reform the framework with which medical technology is regulated in the UK following the UK’s departure from the EU.
The recent announcement by the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, in the Spring Budget confirmed that the MHRA will receive £10 million of extra funding over two years to maximise its use of Brexit freedoms and accelerate patient access to treatments. He also confirmed that the MHRA is moving to a new model, which will allow near automatic sign-off for medicines and technologies that have already been approved by trusted international partners in places such as the USA, Japan and Europe.
Caroline stressed how stronger emphasis on medical innovation has the potential to improve patient outcomes, save the NHS money and boost the UK economy.
Caroline has previously served as the Minister of State for Care from 2018-2020 and Minister of State for Digital and Culture from 2020-2021.
Speaking in the debate, Caroline said:
“Medical Technology holds many of the solutions necessary to achieve things like delivering improved patient outcomes, to facilitate transformations to more sustainable models of health and care delivery. But it also has massive potential to drive economic growth.
“Health Tech includes everything from laboratory tests, dressings, mental health apps, defibrillators, everything that is absolutely fundamental to the diagnosis and treatment of health conditions.”
“The freedoms afforded by Brexit do allow us to seize the once in a generation opportunity to deliver a best in class regulatory system, and enable the health tech industry to support the drive for the UK to become, and continue to be a global science and technology super power.”
The responding Minister said:
“The departments priority is to ensure that innovative, safe and effective devices reach patients as quickly as possible, and it’s an area of focus and an area that I want us to improve on.”
“The Med Tech Strategy, which was published last month, is key because it recognises many of the systemic challenges faced with adopting innovative products which my Hon. Friends have set out.
“The Med Tech Strategy sets out a clear ambition to provide a streamlines pathway from pre-registration to ultimately adoption within the NHS.”
