When we spend money on health and care services for the people of Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, we take into account the needs of the whole population.
The demand for our services is always greater than the money we have available, so it is not possible for us to fund every available treatment. This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions regarding which treatments are routinely provided.
To help us do this, we use national and local policies to ensure the treatments, operations or drugs we commission offer the most benefit to the largest number of people, while also ensuring the process is fair.
We know, however, that there are times when you could benefit from a particular treatment that is not usually funded by us. Your GP or Consultant may make a request on your behalf for such a treatment if they feel there are exceptional clinical circumstances related to your case. This request is called an Exceptional Funding Request (EFR).
View If I pay for private treatment, how will my NHS care be affected?
View the BSW ICB - Exceptional Funding Requests, Prior Approval & Criteria Based Access Policy
View the Statement on European Cross Border Health Care
View advice for Getting as fit as possible for surgery
View the General Principles for Funding Approval
View the BSW CP091 - Management of patients moving in and out of BSW
View the Medicines Management Team Advisory Summary for Private Treatments
Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB Funding Policies
For a small number of treatments, individual policies for each locality still apply. View locality-specific policies for BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire.
| BSW Prior Approval Application Form | Generic form if there is no specific procedural form available for the condition in question |
| BSW Exceptional Procedures Application Form | Generic form for all exceptional procedural requests. Please use the form below for medicines, devices or drug related requests, as the level of information requested on this form will not be sufficient for the committee to make an informed decision |
| BSW Exceptional Medicines Application Form | Generic form for all exceptional medicine, device and drug related requests. |
Locality Specific Policies
BaNES Policies
Please note: The RUH have suspended their Weight Management Service (WMS) until the end of December 2023, so please refer ‘exceptional/urgent’ cases only to ruh-tr.endocrinediabetes@nhs.net, where they will be triaged by the WMS on a case-by-case basis.
Swindon Policies
- Referral to Weight Management Service / Bariatric Surgery
- WMS / Pre-Bariatric Surgery Application Form
- WMS / Post-Bariatric Surgery Application Form
Wiltshire Policies
None listed.