Individual Funding Request and Clinical Policy Service
Individual Funding Request (IFR) Service
Purchasing the best care within the funds you have available can be a challenge when patients’ needs cannot be met by standard healthcare packages. In these cases, you need expert support to ensure that decisions are made transparently, supported by the right processes, administration and clinical expertise. This enables the delivery of the best patient care and the most efficient use of public funds.
Our Individual Funding Request (IFR) team offers a specialist management and administration service to ensure that your IFR process is effective, transparent and consistent. We have extensive experience, having established an effective IFR service in Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Our dedicated clinicians, public health consultants and highly-skilled clinical pharmacists provide expertise to support IFR decision making throughout the North West.
Our service offers:
- Effective IFR case management - decision turnaround time to meet the commissioning organisations requirements, including screening and triage processes combined with a single multi-disciplinary IFR panel operating across the whole ICB footprint.
- Compliance assurance - decision making in line with local and national policy, best practice and statutory obligations such as the Public Sector Equality Duty (protected characteristics).
- Single point of access - for providers across the ICB footprint, supporting an effective patient journey, pathway clarification and advice.
- Equitable and transparent IFR process - robust audit trails to support any challenges and an IFR panel operated at scale across the ICB footprint which considers precedence, prevalence, clinical and cost effectiveness so that decisions are fair and equitable.
- Resilience and experience - highly skilled and experienced team of professionals including dedicated clinical and public health expertise, maximising the economy of scale.
Clinical Policy Development and Implementation
Having clear treatment policies in place ensures that referral, treatment, and funding decisions are appropriate, clinically-effective, cost-effective, and ethical. Policy development is made of important components that all need expert programme management, including:
- Clinical evidence review
- Consultation and engagement with health system stakeholders (GPs, consultants, providers, patient interest groups, the third sector)
- Equality impact and risk assessments
- Patient and clinician communications to support adoption, education and understanding
- Support for implementation, such as updating contracts, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation of impact and outcomes.
Our best-in-class approach has influenced the development of NHS England’s nationwide toolkit for policy development. We’re already bringing the benefits of policy development to several clients in the North West.
Get in touch to learn how we could help your organisation.
For advice or to discuss how we can support your ICS with managing IFRs, please contact us.