Will the Minister review whether the Welsh NHS can provide Hero Arm prosthetic limbs free of charge to patients in Wales?
In Wales, NHS prosthetic services are delivered in-house by three specialist Artificial Limb and Appliance Centres (ALACs) in Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham. The service is commissioned by the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC) on behalf of the seven health boards in Wales.
WHSSC undertakes an annual process to determine the provision of specialist prosthetics services based on evidence of benefit, assessed against specific criteria. Under the current service specification, myoelectric upper limbs can be provided via the service but that currently does not include the Hero Arm, which is one brand of ‘multi-grip’ arm prostheses and is not routinely available on the NHS in Wales.
However, if an individual’s needs cannot be managed within the agreed range of equipment, and the clinical team believe there are exceptional grounds for providing equipment outside of range, then an Individual Patient Funding Request (IPFR) can be submitted to WHSSC. This request is done by clinicians on behalf of their patient under the All Wales Policy for Making Decisions on Individual Patient Funding Requests (IPFR).