Within the NHS Payment Scheme, some high cost drugs and devices are excluded from the calculation of unit prices and national prices. Funding for these items is then either included in a fixed payment or paid for in addition to the price for the related service. As medical practice changes and new drugs and devices are developed and adopted, the lists of high cost drugs and devices needs to be kept as current as practically possible.

Provision of nationally defined datasets is a condition of reimbursement and accurate, patient-level itemised high-cost drug expenditure is an immediate priority for NHS England.