Review of the year

Over 120 HTA staff and stakeholders gathered in central London to share ideas and participate in a lively debate on cord blood banks.

Event date: 14 July 2009

Event details

The review of the year event, held on 14 July at BMA House in London, was a day long and included sessions about HTA's achievements and activities, an interactive panel debate and a brainstorming exercise with the audience about HTA strategy.

In the morning, Adrian McNeil, HTA Chief Executive, gave an overview of the HTA, its approach to regulation and achievements of the year. Tim Courtney from the Better Regulation Executive followed with a presentation about the Hampton Implementation Review, alongside Sandy Mather, HTA Director of Regulation. You can watch Adrian, Tim and Sandy's  presentations online.

Vicki Chapman, Director of Policy and Strategy, spoke about the HTA's development of codes of practice and Terry Johnson, Mortuary Manager at the Hull Royal Infirmary, described his experience of being regulated.

The afternoon's session was interactive, designed to engage the audience in a topical debate relevant to the HTA's remit. The topic was cord blood banks, and there was a series of presentations from a panel that comprised Colin Pavelin from the Department of Health, Donna Dickenson, Professor of Medical Ethics and author of the book ‘Body Shopping', and Derwood Pamphilon from NHS Blood and Transplant.

Joining them was Roger Dainty from Future Health Technologies, a private cord blood bank, and Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust.

The speakers covered the benefits, risks and options for the next 10 years, and took questions from the audience in a discussion chaired by Shirley Harrison, HTA chair. The session ended with a straw poll, captured on electronic voting devices (see below).

Allan Marriott-Smith, Head of Strategy and Planning at the HTA, concluded the day with an interactive session on stakeholders' input into HTA plans for the future. He presented the HTA's tool for identifying external drivers for change that may have an impact on the HTA over the next five years - the ‘PESTEL' analysis (political, economic, sociological, technological, environmental and legal factors).

The audience provided key ideas that the HTA will use to shape its strategy and feed into its plans for the future.

Beliefs about banking

The audience, which was made up of those we regulate from the private and public sectors, as well as people affected by our regulation, answered questions on their ideas and views on the future of public and private cord blood banking. Results may not represent opinions of the general public.

• 77% believed that in the future public cord blood banking should be available for anyone who wants it.
• 89% thought in the future that all prospective parents should be provided with information by the NHS about cord blood banking.
• Half thought that stem cells from cord blood will live up to the expectations for increased use in treatments over the next 10 years.
• 73% would personally want their child's cord blood to be banked in a public cord blood bank.
• 73% would personally not want their child's cord blood to be banked in a private cord blood bank.
• Assuming they would bank, 83% would want it to be made available to others rather than for the baby's sole use.

The Genetic Interest Group has published a leaflet on cord blood banking. A link to the leaflet is on the top left of this page and it is also available on our stem cells and cord blood page.

Contact information