The next steps for the UK Medtech sector were recently discussed at an online Westminster Health Forum policy conference, attended by regulators, technology companies, and patient representatives.
Dan Jones, director of government affairs for medtech firm Stryker in the UK and Ireland, told delegates how difficult it is to get new technology established. ‘It costs money, often, it requires dual running, and there are challenges around the workforce and the teams.'
He added: ‘We need to look at implementation and how we can work together as an industry, alongside NHS organisations, to make sure when that tech comes through, we've got everything else lined up, we're able to drive the changes within NHS organisations that see that uptake happen.'
Rob Reid, deputy director for innovative devices within the MHRA, highlighted the new regulations that manufacturers will need to follow from 16 June this year.
He told delegates: ‘These are really important because they basically provide the fundamental building blocks for everything else that we want to do from a regulatory perspective.'
Dr Monika Preuss, deputy director for innovation and medtech policy, strategy and regulation at DHSC, told delegates that in developing the medtech strategy, its year-long engagement with industry and patients found recurring themes.
She said: ‘Traditional procurement practices focus way too much on upfront cost versus the impact that a product may have on things like patient outcomes or productivity. There's a lack of consistency in procurement processes, which causes confusion, and the inability by trusts to purchase at scale. There's also no incentive for industry, or not particular incentive for industry, to prioritise the UK as a launch market. We believe this is, in part, due to our very stringent focus on cost.
‘And finally, there's no consistent route, route to assess the value of a product, both at the national and local level.'
The DHSC's proposed solutions have been co-created in partnership with NHS England, NHS supply chain, and through consultation with trusts, ICBs and industry and patients.
Dr Preuss said: ‘We're proposing that value will form 60% of a procurement decision, which includes the already mandated 10% in social value, and that only 40% of weighting will go towards financial considerations, meaning that value has the majority weighting, rather than just cost. So we're creating a number of products to support this.
‘The first one is national guidance, which includes a question bank for the five domains.'
In addition, an accompanying passport mechanism is being created to support procurement. Once product claims have been submitted and validated, they will have a stamp of approval on the value that they provide. Trusts can then use that passport to purchase the technology.
To enable this, DHSC is exploring a digital solution called Compass that will store value-based procurement assessment information, reducing the requirement for suppliers to submit the same information multiple times.
DHSC is currently shadow testing the draft guidance with trusts, which involves participating trusts using the draft guidance in parallel to an actual live procurement exercise to test the usability. DHSC will take lessons learned and amend the guidance as needed and will then do a live pilot where the guidance will be used in actual live procurement to make a purchase.
Dr Preuss added: ‘We're hoping to refine the guidance later on this year, with a view to rolling it out nationally in early 2026. Alongside that, we're also reviewing what support and training will be needed for buyers and suppliers, suppliers, alongside this rollout.'
Dr Arash Yass, deputy director for medtech innovation at NHS England, told delegates he believes that the ‘right ingredients exist for the NHS to be seen as the world's destination incubator market, a place where ideas and concepts are born, are tested and then scaled globally'.
‘There's a lot of work that we need to do to enhance that, but I do think that we have the right building blocks to make that happen,' he added.
