What is happening?
The Government has clarified responsibilities for the procurement of medical devices to create efficiencies, avoid duplication, and provide the transparency and certainty that suppliers have been asking for.
In future, Health NZ and Pharmac will share responsibility for the procurement of medical devices that are most focused on their particular capabilities and expertise.
The agencies worked together to identify which of the 55 categories of medical devices they should each be responsible for.
Under the new arrangement, Pharmac will lead procurement for 27 categories, while Health NZ will lead 28.
Agency responsibilities
Pharmac will take responsibility for procuring devices that have a direct therapeutic impact on patients and that need a high level of clinical input. For instance, this includes items such as surgical implants.
Health NZ will focus on high-volume devices that can be standardised across hospitals such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and continence products, as well as devices that need to be integrated with hospital infrastructure, such as MRIs and CT scanners.
See the following document for more details.
Responsibility for Health Technology Assessments
Health NZ will retain control of the medical device budget but will resource Pharmac to deliver independent Health Technology Assessments.
These assessments will inform future decisions about new and novel devices, to ensure New Zealanders have access to the best medical devices.
