Connecting the local healthcare system for faster medical technology adoption – MTFM
The MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) policy is designed to ensure that patients and the NHS benefit from faster access to proven, cost-effective medical technologies. Health Innovation South West plays a pivotal role in bringing this policy to life - acting as the regional connector to drive collaboration, unlock system barriers, and accelerate adoption.
Impact
- Enabled cross-system collaboration between NHS procurement teams, clinicians, supply chains and product leads.
- Developed a regionally tailored engagement strategy informed by extensive stakeholder input.
- Catalysed clinician-led exploration of innovative technologies through targeted support.
Project summary
The MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) policy aims to close the gap between innovation and implementation by accelerating the uptake of NICE-approved, cost-saving medical technologies. The policy supports NHS providers and systems to adopt and fund these innovations locally.
Health Innovation South West acts as the regional connector, facilitating alignment between suppliers, providers and commissioners. We provide guidance on translating national policy into local strategies, and support business case development and procurement for commissioners. We engage with NHS Trusts to assess feasibility and readiness for adoption, provide funding guidance, facilitate clinical engagement, and offer implementation support.
Our key achievement in 2024/2025 has been fostering system-wide thinking and helping NHS organisations overcome common adoption barriers.
Rationale
Many proven, cost-saving medical technologies struggle to reach NHS patients quickly due to delays in local adoption and unclear funding routes. MTFM addresses these challenges by:
- Delivering faster access to minimally invasive, more effective treatments which means shorter hospital stays and improved recovery for patients.
- Empowering clinicians with access to newer technologies that improve care quality.
- Supporting the health and care system through long-term costs savings and efficiency in treatment pathways.
Minimally invasive day-case procedures are particularly impactful in rural and coastal NHS services, where travel distances, limited surgical capacity, and inpatient pressures challenge patients and staff.
Key stakeholders
- Health Innovation South West plays a central role in regional collaboration. We bring strategic insights and best practice from across the region, a networked approach to stakeholder engagement, and advocacy for policy support and funding allocation.
- Other stakeholders are local NHS Trusts, ICB Commissioners, NHS England (national MTFM team), clinical teams across specialities, and the NHS Supply Chain.
Next steps
We will provide continued support and regional momentum for uptake of technologies under the MTFM. We will continue to strengthen our partnerships with commissioning teams and share learnings for future NHSE policy.
We have established a Devon Pain Cafe community of practice which brings pain management specialists together on a regular basis to reflect on learnings and share best practice.
NHS Somerset are streamlining their pain cafe offer to support sustainability. They are now implementing a train-the-trainer model which will retain skills and reduce expenditure in training fees.
