An individual funding request is a procedure with the English and Welsh

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

for individuals who require treatments, drugs or therapies that are not normally funded.

England

Before 2013 these requests were dealt with by

primary care trust Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May ...

s. Then they were managed by

clinical commissioning group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (England), National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace Strategic health authority, strategic health authorities and NHS pr ...

s which each had an individual funding request panel.

NHS England NHS England, formally the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning si ...

manages requests for specialised services which are commissioned by them. They are now dealt with by

integrated care system In England, an integrated care system (ICS) is a statutory partnership of organisations who plan, buy, and provide health and care services in their geographical area. The organisations involved include the NHS England, NHS, local authorities, vol ...

s if the service is not managed by

. Applications are made by clinicians who are asked to supply evidence of clinical need, clinical and cost-effectiveness, the impact of refusal and exceptionality. This procedure cannot be used if there is likely to be a cohort of similar patients in the same or similar clinical circumstances as the requesting patient whose clinical condition means that they could make a similar request. Requests are supposed to be dealt with within 20 days. North Kirklees and Greater Huddersfield CCGs decided in January 2017 that they would stop most individual funding requests, hoping to save £750,000 over the next 18 months.

Medical cannabis Medical cannabis, medicinal cannabis or medical marijuana (MMJ) refers to cannabis products and cannabinoid molecules that are prescribed by physicians for their patients. The use of cannabis as medicine has a long history, but has not ...

has been the subject of a number of requests.

Wales

The individual patient funding request system in Wales was reformed in 2017. It will no longer be necessary to show exceptional clinical circumstances, only that a drug will bring "significant clinical benefit" and that it represents "reasonable value for money".

References

{{reflist National Health Service (England) NHS Wales