Individual Funding Requests (IFRs)

One of our biggest challenges as a commissioning organisation is how to strike the right balance between providing services that meet the needs of most of our patients.

We commission (that means plan, pay for and monitor) healthcare services on a large scale for all patients in the Wakefield area. However, we are aware that every patient is unique and that sometimes patients have exceptional or complex health needs that fall outside the services we normally provide. For this reason, we have a process that allows for requests for funding for individuals with exceptional circumstances to be made.

Our patients' guide gives more detailed information on IFRs, and can be found in the downloads section below (not yet available).

Some examples of treatments or procedures not routinely funded include:

• procedures considered 'cosmetic' in nature
• fertility services
• treatments that have not been approved for use by NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) which provides guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health.

If you have a clinical condition that your doctor feels might benefit from a treatment that is not routinely funded by us then your GP or Consultant can make an Individual Funding Request (IFR) to ask us to fund the treatment if they feel you have exceptional reasons for needing it. For more information on exceptional circumstances please visit the definition of exceptional circumstances page.

For more information about the stages of the IFR process please visit the Individual Funding Request (IFR) Process page. We work together with the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority and the Yorkshire and the Humber Specialised Commissioning Group to develop policies and procedures for decision making and Individual Funding Requests that are common throughout the region. These comply with the principles set out in the NHS Constitution.

For more information about our commissioning policies and to download policies please visit the Commissioning Policies page.

Our Individual Funding Request (IFR) policy can be found in the downloads section at the bottom of the page, along with some other useful documents about the rules which inform our decisions.