Parliamentary Exchange on Individual Funding Requests (IFRs)
John Healey MP for Wentworth and Dearne asked the Secretary of State for Health, how many Individual Funding Requests (IFRs) have been considered by (a) the IFR Screening Group and (b) the IFR Panel in each of the last five years; how many of those IFRs have been approved; and what the total cost of those procedures was.
David Mowat MP for Warrington South and Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health) replied with the following figures:
The following table sets out the number of Individual Funding Requests (IFRs) considered and approved in the last five years.
| 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17* | Total | |
| Decisions made at IFR Screening Group | 1,493 | 953 | 633 | 345 | 3,424 |
| Decisions made at IFR Panel | 428 | 402 | 300 | 80 | 1,210 |
| Approved IFRs | 256 | 249 | 179 | 29 | 713 |
*based on the period from April to November 2016
It should be noted that all IFRs considered at the IFR panel will have previously been considered at a screening panel.
The cost of procedures approved through the IFR process is not routinely collected nationally.
