Presentation (CTI)

OBJECTIVES: The National HealthTech Access Programme (NHAP), announced in the 2025 NHS 10-year plan, was launched to provide faster and fairer access to high-impact, non-medicine products in England and Wales, including digital products. However, it is unclear how much access previous NICE digital HealthTech recommendations have gained locally. Understanding historical NICE assessments and access may contextualise NHAP. This study aimed to characterise NICE digital HealthTech evaluations and assess whether positive recommendations translated into local access.
METHODS: NICE HealthTech guidance published between 2020 and 2026 was filtered for digital assessments. Disease area, functionality, date, and product details were extracted. Three patient-facing mental health products (Sleepio, iCT-PTSD and SilverCloud) were selected to assess local access. This was done through an analysis of formularies, prescribing guidance, and local pathways of the 36 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).
RESULTS: NICE recommendations for digital health technologies have become increasingly positive, with approval rates rising from 48% in 2023 to 66% in 2026 across 181 products. However, NICE endorsement does not consistently translate into patient access. Availability varied markedly between ICBs, with SilverCloud available in 100% of ICBs compared with just 28% for Sleepio and 8% for iCT-PTSD.
CONCLUSIONS: While NICE has increasingly recommended digital technologies across multiple therapeutic areas, local adoption is inconsistent. Mental health product case studies highlight a key limitation of the previous system: positive national guidance alone was insufficient to ensure equitable access, resulting in regional variation and a postcode lottery. This may partly reflect the limited scope of previous implementation mechanisms, such as the MedTech Funding Mandate. NHAP may help bridge the gap between national recommendations and local implementation through more consistent access. Further evaluation is needed to determine whether NHAP delivers these intended benefits.