ABPI response to the Hewitt Review recommendations

The ABPI has welcomed Patricia Hewitt’s review of Integrated Care Systems and the opportunity it presents to improve health outcomes and address health inequalities.

Key to delivering the reviews recommendations will be fostering partnerships and securing system-wide collaborative approaches, especially around improving assessment of value, a stronger focus on prevention and improved data quality and reporting across NHS organisations.

Brian Duggan, ABPI Strategic Partnership Policy Director said: “Patricia Hewitt is right to focus on the creation of health value to ensure that patients receive the highest quality of care available to them. Investment in innovative medicines can transform a patient’s life, while also bringing significant productivity benefits to the NHS and the wider UK economy and society.

“The review’s focus on preventative care is critical in sustainably promoting the health and wellbeing of the nation. Secondary preventions in the form of accurate diagnosis and treatments can improve individual patient outcomes, while long-term, such interventions will pay dividends for the NHS by reducing repeat use of services.

“The ABPI strongly supports the review’s recommendation to develop a minimum data sharing standards framework to be adopted by all ICSs. This will play an essential role in establishing consistent and meaningful data flows across NHS organisations. This would ensure that ICBs can be accountable for a specified standard of clinical recording, while also leading to better, high-quality data, that could be used for clinical decision making, service planning and innovation, improving patient outcomes.”