NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board receive a fixed budget from the Government to buy and provide health services for the entire BLMK population.
The treatments routinely funded are those regarded as safe, clinically effective and a good use of NHS resources.
On an individual basis, there may be circumstances where a clinician believes that their patient’s clinical presentation is exceptionally different to other patients with the same condition and that they should have their treatment paid for when other patients would not. In such cases, NHS clinicians can ask the Integrated Care Board to consider funding a treatment that would not normally be available on the NHS for the patient in question. The request for funding is called an Individual Funding Request (IFR).
The Integrated Care Board regards funding for an individual patient as an equity matter. Funding a particular treatment for a patient when others from the same patient group are not routinely funded for the requested treatment has to be carefully considered and justified.
For any questions, queries or advice about IFR’s or the NHS Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board’s clinical policies, the IFR Service can be contacted at blmkicb.ifrservice@nhs.net