Part IX of the drug tariff

That this House notes that several thousand of residents in each Parliamentary constituency use medical devices and catheters successfully to manage urinary incontinence and maintain quality of life; welcomes the significant decreases in deaths through improvements in medical devices and catheterisation techniques; acknowledges that those improvements have been underpinned by Part IX of the Drug Tariff which provides fixed prices for safe and effective products; supports the long-standing policy that clinicians have the right and duty to prescribe products on that list are most appropriate for each patient; further notes the introduction of large numbers of more limited lists of products through local formularies and frameworks by NHS trusts, care commissioning groups and NHS Supply Chain; notes that those lists often fail to emphasise the importance of clinician access to the full range of products on Part IX, undermining clinical freedom and patient choice and putting a strain on the NHS through avoidable admissions for urinary tract infections; and calls on the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to make a commitment to Part IX of the Drug Tariff and to ensure that NHS England complies with formularies and frameworks for continence products in relation to Part IX of the Drug Tariff.