Procurement

In early June 2022, NHS England and NHS Improvement updated information about the nationwide purchase and supply system for High Cost Tariff-Excluded Devices, which was introduced in 2016. The name of the program changed to the Specialised Service Devices program (SSDP). The program currently covers 15 categories of devices, and several new categories will be added during the 2022/23 financial year.

According to the available financial results, published by the German Federal Ministry of Health, the German statutory health insurance companies reported a total deficit of around 2.65 billion euros in 2020. The health fund reported a deficit of 3.49 billion euros in 2020. As of January 15, 2021, the health fund's liquidity reserve was around 5.9 billion euros.

NHS England is advising a temporary pause on any new migrations to the central supply route for high-cost tariff-excluded devices (HCTEDs) so that NHS suppliers can devote maximum operational effort to the COVID-19 action plan. If an NHS provider wants to complete an HCTED category migration, they will address this with their respective implementing manager for the NHS Supply Chain.

The Italian association of medical technology manufacturers, CONFINDUSTRIA dispositivi medici, published the results of a study in which they studied the average time the supplier of medical devices has to wait to get an invoice paid by the Italian hospitals. The differences vary between 35 days and 504 days.

On February 19, 2019 the new “Catalog of Goods and Services” for the centralized purchasing platform was presented to the regional health authorities by the Minister of Health. This new catalog includes up to 25,000 items, including drugs and health products.

In late October 2018, Assobiomedica, the body that represents the companies that operate in the medical device sector, published the fourth edition of the document “Public policies for the purchase of medical devices.”

On November 7, 2018, the Italian Ministry of Health announced the document which should serve as a tool for the acquisition of medical devices through tenders.

The generic quality framework and three modules of care describe the general requirements for medical devices for home-based application, included in the Health Insurance Act (Zvw). This framework is not intended for medical devices that fall under the Social Support Act (Wmo) and medical aids provided in intramural settings.

Decree #968 introduced a number of additional products for which procurement will be limited to Russian-made products only. The List includes devices for blood transfusion, containers for storage and transport of blood, consumables for mechanical lung ventilation, consumables for plasmapheresis, consumables for cardiopulmonary bypass, urine, and fecal collectors.

Since April 2016, procurement of a number of devices, which are reimbursed on top of HRG in England via High Cost Device List, was transferred from local level to the national level under NHS Supply Chain. NHS Supply Chain released a new set of questions and answers to the most common questions from the providers. The document provides substantial insights into specifics of the procurement process.

NCP is a program of centralized procurement of commonly used simple devices in the NHS in England. NHS Supply Chain makes procurement on behalf of all trusts and makes limited number of products available in its catalogue for order by individual trusts. The first products for centralized contracting in 2017 are couch rolls and blunt-fill syringes.