The UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee recently completed an examination of the UK Chief Medical Officer’s (Dame Sally Davies) call in her 2016 annual report, ‘Generation Genome’, for mainstreaming genomic medicine in the NHS within 5 years.
The Committee considered the conclusions from an interim report from the previous Committee on Genomics and gene-editing and sought submissions on observations of how any barriers to greater integration of genomic therapies in the NHS could be overcome.
The ‘Genomics and genome editing in the NHS’ Report of the inquiry, released on 20 April 2018, reported that the deployment of the UK’s world-leading genomics capabilities in the NHS is being held back by NHS digital infrastructure delays and reduced training budgets, and risks losing public support due to low public awareness of the benefits on offer. The report also calls for the Concordat and Moratorium agreed between the Government and the Association of 20 British Insurers, which prohibits insurers from basing premiums on predictive genetic information, be renewed.
The full report is available at here.