Accelerated Access Review extended to April 2016
Sir Hugh Taylor announces, and explains the benefits of, an extension of the review.
The Accelerated Access Review (AAR) has the potential to make far reaching recommendations to government about how we can speed up access to transformative health technology with the main aim of helping to change the lives of NHS patients.
So what is important is that we make best use of this opportunity and that I get my recommendations right. To ensure this we need time to develop our ideas further and to engage fully with stakeholders to get your views on our emerging ideas.
For this reason, I have agreed with the Minister for Life Sciences, George Freeman, to extend the timescale for the Accelerated Access Review, so it will now conclude in April 2016, which is when I plan to publish my final report. Below, you can see our updated engagement timeline.
As I write, my team and I are working on the review’s interim report, which is due to be published in October. This will be an opportunity for me to give an outline of my emerging thinking and to present some early proposals about what my review might recommend.
I want to thank everyone for your invaluable input so far. We have been listening to, and reading with great interest, the helpful feedback we have received both via our online engagement platform, where you posted over 300 comments, and through our numerous face-to-face meetings with well over 600 people to date. We have heard from patients, service users, charities, NHS commissioners and providers, professionals and industry among others - all of which has helped me learn from your in-depth knowledge to help me work out how my vision could be achieved.
Although the online conversation has now paused and is no longer accepting responses to the first set of questions we posed there, the team and I continue to meet and discuss the review with you. These discussions will help inform my thinking and assist with creating and testing specific proposals.
In the meantime, you can still explore the engagement platform to learn more about the review, read all the interesting and helpful comments everyone has posted and sign up to the Accelerated Access newsletter (at the top right of every page) to make sure you are among the first to get all of our updates.
I would like to thank you all for your engagement to date with my review and I sincerely hope that you will continue to share your thoughts and ideas with us - either in person or via our platform when the online conversation resumes following publication of the interim report. This engagement will be invaluable to help myself and my team work up the proposals into more detailed and workable recommendations to inform my final report in April 2016.