The NHS is a key “national asset” for life science innovation, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

Speaking at the inaugural Global Health Policy Summit in London, Cameron emphasised the relationship between NHS reform and the Government’s innovation strategy.

Developments such as value-based pricing and making anonymised NHS patient data available to researchers would “bring breakthroughs in long-neglected areas like dementia”, he claimed.

Cameron stated that his goal in healthcare was to make the NHS “diverse, flexible and tailored to individual needs”, thereby adapting it as a research base to the challenge of developing personalised medicine.

Global healthcare was undergoing a “fundamental shift” towards “individually-tailored” medicine, he said, driven by the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases and the progress of genetic research.

To achieve that required “open innovation, more collaboration with universities and start-ups, and a greater emphasis on data analytics and genomics”.

The unique patient data resources and purchasing power of the NHS made it a natural partner for life science innovation, he argued.

To develop that relationship, the Government had given the NHS a legal duty to promote research, was planning to introduce value-based pricing, and was consulting on an early access scheme for new medicines.

Crucially, it planned to change the NHS constitution so that patient data could be used for research unless the patient opted out.

Stephen Whitehead, Chief Executive of the ABPI, commented that the trade association valued the Government’s “continued support for industry” and agreed that the NHS offered the life science industry a “great opportunity”.

However, he said, “we are not convinced that value-based pricing will encourage innovation or reward the most effective medicines,” as it would not reflect the incremental nature of innovation or reward the industry enough for its R&D.

Sub-standard primary care treatment for people with neurological conditions is resulting in a high number of emergency hospital admissions, a new report has said.

A report by the Neurological Alliance accuses the NHS of neglecting patients through delays in diagnosis and failure to provide information on treatment options.

The Alliance said that the NHS reforms would not improve standards of care due to levers “not being mobilised to support improvements”.

The report called for the new bodies created as part of the Health and Social Care Act to address the “legacy of neglect” that has resulted in “unacceptable variations in outcomes and higher than necessary costs”.

Neurological conditions, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, account for 5% of overall spending on the NHS.

The DH and the NHS Commissioning Board have now been challenged by the Alliance to devise indicators for quality of service that will overhaul and improve standards of care.

The DH said that discussions were already taking place to ensure that strategic clinical networks cover these conditions. “We are working closely with patient groups and health professionals to develop a new Long-Term Conditions Strategy,” said a spokesperson. “The NHS Commissioning Board is already planning to drive improvements to improve mental health services, dementia and neurological conditions.”

The Neurological Alliance is formed by 70 charities that work with people with related brain, spinal column or nerve conditions.

More than 44 new indicators have been proposed in the first Commissioning Outcomes Framework (COF) by NICE.

The proposed indicators include care for stroke patients, plus ones for COPD, maternal care and access to mental health services.

The ‘menu’ of indicators covers the five domains outlined in the NHS Outcomes Framework.

Professor Danny Keenan, COF Advisory Committee Chair, said he hoped the “robust” set of indicators would “lead to improved health outcomes”.

From April next year, the COF will be used to hold CCGs to account for improvement in quality of local healthcare and patient outcomes through the services they commission.

The indicators have been developed using the Outcomes Framework, NICE Quality Standards and existing indicator collections, such as national audits.

A further menu of indicators will now be developed using NICE’s quality standards to ensure that all topics are covered.

Dr Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care at NICE, said the indicators will “support high quality commissioning”.

“Each indicator has been through public consultation and feasibility testing (conducted by the Health and Social Care Information Centre), so commissioners can be reassured that they will work in practice,” she said.

The final selection of indicators that will be included within the 2013/14 COF will be decided by the NHS Commissioning Board later this year.

Plans for local Healthwatch organisations to develop as social enterprises, but with the power to subcontract their functions, have been outlined by the DH.

The Summary Report on issues relating to local Healthwatch regulations follows a three-month consultation with targeted stakeholders, experts and the wider public.

Healthwatch, the new ‘consumer champion’ for health and social care, will consist of a national body (Healthwatch England) directing local Healthwatch bodies that will replace the Local Involvement Networks.

Each local authority area will have a local Healthwatch, and this will be a “social enterprise”. The DH will set out “flexible criteria” for that term.

A local Healthwatch will be allowed to make profits, but will have to reinvest at least 50% of them in furthering its “social objective”.

Another key principle is that each local Healthwatch, when authorised by the local authority, will be able to subcontract any of its functions.

To gather information, local Healthwatch must “work collaboratively with existing representatives, groups and organisations, in the statutory and voluntary sectors” as well as gathering the views and experiences of service users.

According to the DH, it will be “unnecessary” for local Healthwatch bodies to be legally required to respond to information requests.