Additional listings on the Pharmaceutical Schedule of a range of orthopaedic implants and associated products with Smith and Nephew Limited
PHARMAC is pleased to announce the approval of an amendment to the trauma agreement with Smith and Nephew Limited (“S&N”).
In summary, the effect of the decision is that:
- Further ranges of orthopaedic joint implants, and associated products will be listed in Section H, Part III, (‘Optional Pharmaceuticals’) of the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 April 2017. This has been extended from the consulted date of 1 March due to issues with the schedule pricing that needed to be resolved.
- Currently listed trauma implants will have reduced pricing.
- DHB hospitals can purchase these items directly from S&N.
- For the DHBs that currently use these products the national agreement will deliver savings.
Details of the decision
In April 2016 an orthopaedic implants and associated products request for proposal (“RFP”) was released requesting proposals for non-exclusive national agreements for medical devices, to PHARMAC for a listing on the Pharmaceutical Schedule and S&N responded to this request.
The purpose of the RFP was to secure national contracts for DHB hospitals to purchase from, and to provide replacement contracts for the current HBL suite of hip and knee contracts due to expire in April 2017.
S&N’s proposal was to add additional schedules to its current Agreement for trauma implants to incorporate all products in their orthopaedic implants and associated products portfolio in line with the scope of the RFP. The proposal also offered reduced pricing of their currently listed trauma implants.
This will result in national savings of approximately $550,000 to DHBs that currently use these products, based on current usage.
The agreement is not exclusive. DHBs can continue to purchase other brands of orthopaedic implants and associated products at their discretion.
Educational services will be provided by S&N to DHB personnel on appropriate use of its orthopaedic implants and associated products and will be arranged in a format and at times as agreed with individual DHBs.
Feedback received
We appreciate all of the feedback that we received and acknowledge the time people took to respond. All consultation responses received by 17 February 2017 were considered in their entirety in making a decision on the proposed changes.
No feedback received from this consultation but the following issues with schedule were raised:
| Theme | Comment |
|---|---|
| Some pricing appeared to be misaligned in the schedule which would result in a significant increase in cost for DHBs. | Smith and Nephew were sent the schedule to review and found the trauma tab had some corrupted pricing in it at time of submission.The pricing has been amended to reflect the correct pricing and the line items have been highlighted to allow DHBs to easily identify the changes. |
More information
If you have any questions about this decision, you can email us at enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz or call our toll free number (9 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday) on 0800 66 00 50.