SRP 005 Interventional Procedure Guidance

Policy number: SRP 005
Policy name: Interventional Procedure Guidance
Effective date: 1 April 2024
Next review date: 1 April 2026

NICE issues Interventional Procedure Guidance (IPGs) with the aim of protecting the safety of patients and supporting the NHS in the process of introducing new procedures. The IPGs are not covered by the Secretary of State’s directions to NHS organisations to fund the implementation of NICE recommendations within a given timescale because this direction relates only to NICE Technology Appraisal Guidance (TAGs).

Interventional Procedure Guidance makes recommendations on the safety of the procedure and how well it works. The guidance does not recommend whether the NHS should fund a procedure; or not and these decisions are therefore for MSE ICB.

MSE ICB recognises that it is not within the remit of the NICE IPG Programme to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of interventional procedures or to advise the NHS whether interventional procedures should be funded.

Specific commissioning position with respect to different categories of IPG is laid out below:

Standard arrangements

MSE ICB will not fund health care interventions where NICE has considered them to be safe, and/or impact on cost/activity unless funding/pathway change has been approved following a business case. Providers must not introduce new interventional procedures subject to standard arrangements under a NICE IPG prior to approval by the ICB.

Special arrangements

MSE ICB will not fund health care interventions that are subject to a NICE IPG where the IPG states:

Current evidence on safety is inadequate.
Current evidence on efficacy is inadequate.
Evidence of safety and efficacy is on small numbers of patients and of limited quality.
No major safety concerns, but efficacy has not been shown.
Evidence is limited to a small number of patients. Good short-term efficacy but little evidence of long-term efficacy.
There is adequate evidence of safety and efficacy, but the technical demands are such that is should not be used without special arrangements.
Evidence for short term efficacy is limited and long-term outcomes are uncertain.

Research only

MSE ICB will not fund health care interventions that the NICE IPG programme has recommended should only be undertaken in the context of research. Clinicians wishing to undertake such procedures should ensure they fulfil the normal requirements for undertaking research.

Where there is a possibility that NHS funded care may be impacted following the cessation of the trial, or a patient’s completion of a trial, clinicians must agree this with M&SECCGs before the trial commences.