Each health board aims to ensure the establishment of simple uniform arrangement based around high quality, sustainable local services for their patients. Where these cannot be provided by the health boards own services for reasons such as resource, expertise or capacity, the health board will look to plan and secure necessary services with other NHS providers in Wales.
The prior approval process is defined as a request to a Health Board or the NHS Wales Joint Commissioning Committee (NWJCC) to refer a patient outside of local services or established contractual arrangement for routine treatment. Please contact your local health board for further information.
Each Health Board in Wales has in place an INNU policy which sets out a list of healthcare treatments that represent interventions where the evidence suggests very little, if any, effective health gain, and in many cases possible harm. Where there is evidence of limited or no effectiveness for an intervention, then its use should be minimised. These treatments will only be provided if certain clinical criteria are met. Please contact your local health board for further information.
The S2 route may entitle you to NHS funding for planned state healthcare treatment in a European Union (EU) country or Switzerland, providing certain qualifying criteria are met.
This is not the same as making an IPFR as it is covered under different legislation and is a different procedure. However, these requests will also be processed by the Health Board IPFR Team. Please contact your Local Health Board for further information and/or a copy of the application form and guidance notes.