Latest Adoption Audit report reveals impact of HTW guidance
Awareness of HTW guidance is high and it is having an impact across Wales according to the latest HTW Adoption Audit Report.
HTW’s audit, which is carried out annually, focused on 11 pieces of HTW guidance and three pieces of NICE Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme (MTEP) guidance.
The aim of the audit was to find out whether adoption of the guidance had taken place across Wales.
Response rates to the audit were encouraging with responses from six of the seven health boards and from the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee (WHSSC).
Key findings from the Adoption Audit Report 2022/23 included:
- Responses from organisations where the guidance is relevant indicate that awareness of HTW guidance is high (70%), clarity of HTW guidance recommendations is good (83%), and HTW guidance is having some form of impact in the majority of cases (72%).
- In some cases, responses clearly show that HTW guidance was adopted and had a clear impact on decision-making. For guidance recommending the routine adoption of a technology, this was most evident for FreeStyle Libre flash glucose monitoring.
- There were some cases where HTW guidance appears not to have been adopted. For guidance recommending the use of a technology, this was most evident for ClearGuard™.
- Adoption of guidance was hindered in some cases by resource limitations (positive HTW guidance is not accompanied by additional funding) and other factors such as small patient numbers, the capabilities of existing technology and the current use of other products.
The audit report concluded that local health boards, WHSCC and the specialist health boards should continue to work with HTW to support future adoption audit reports and that Welsh Government should continue to encourage participation in the process. It also suggests that HTW should consider how the adoption audit process can be extended to cover social care guidance.
Professor Peter Groves, Chairman of HTW, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank the local health boards, commissioners, and specialist health boards for engaging with us so closely throughout the audit process.
“Their support will ensure that we have a proper understanding of the impact of our work and can act on the findings of the report to ensure we meet the needs of the health and care sectors in Wales.”
Dr Susan Myles, Director of HTW, added: ““We are proud to be leading the way in the UK and internationally in the way we monitor the impact of our national guidance.”
“This important work will enable us to support the ambitions set out in the health and social care agenda for Wales.”
To read the report in full click here
