Individual funding request

"An IFR is a request to fund, for an individual, an episode of healthcare that currently falls outside existing contracts. The funding request may be asking for any type of healthcare: a service, a piece of equipment or aid, a specific treatment or medicine. In contrast to annual prioritisation and inyear service development decisions, appropriate IFRs are considered on an individual patient, rather than population, basis. There are two main categories of appropriate IFR: first, where patients fall outside an existing generic or treatment-specific policy where an unusual circumstance applies to the individual; second, for patients with a very rare clinical condition" NPC 2009

An "Individual funding request" or IFR is the process used by a commissioning primary care organisation to decide whether to make a funding arrangement for an individual for a particular, usually non-routine purpose, such as:

• A rare disease without other commissioning arrangements
• Where a conditions treatment is not routinely funded but a rare combination of clinical circumstances may make the individual circumstances exceptional eg:
  • To pay for accommodation for a patient with tuberculosis, so that they can continue to take their treatment, and not become a public health hazard to others.

IFRs are assessed according to a local policy. Often an area larger than just one commissioning primary care organisation will partake in the standard process, particularly where routine commissioning decisions are aligned. Formal delegation is necessary by any commissioning group to any host commissioning group of such powers. Such arrangements have advantages such as decreasing administrative support and that rarity can be handled more consistently across the health economy.