The future of hospital medical device management
Pharmac, Te Whatu Ora, suppliers, and others are working towards a new way of managing hospital medical devices used or supplied in hospitals or in the community.
Once the list is comprehensive
Once the hospital medical devices list is comprehensive:
- Te Whatu Ora hospitals will only buy hospital medical devices from the Hospital Medical Devices List.
- There will be an assessment and decision-making process to make improvements to the Hospital Medical Devices List.
- There will be an exceptions process for hospital medical devices that are not in the Hospital Medical Devices List.
Te Whatu Ora will decide what devices are needed to deliver their local services, choosing the most appropriate devices from the national Hospital Medical Devices List.
Once the Hospital Medical Devices List is comprehensive, Pharmac will decide which devices are available for use in the hospital or in their specialist services.
Developing new processes
We are developing the new processes that will be used to make changes to the Hospital Medical Devices List.
These new processes include how:
- changes will be received and tracked
- requests will be triaged, progressed, and implemented
- to get timely and equitable advice
- to rank investment choices and use health technology assessments
- to make funding decisions
- to publish accessible information.
Decisions will be informed
Our decision-making process will be informed by internationally recognised health technology assessment processes, expert advice, and our Factors for Consideration.
We will need input into our decision making, so we understand the full cost and value of a potential change. This needs to consider both the economic and social impacts for the person, their family and whānau and the wider health system.
This advice may come from a range of people. This includes consumers, Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people, clinicians, technical specialists, other healthcare workers, and those with lived experience or their family.
The process will need to be flexible, allowing discretion to consider unique aspects and circumstances, while meeting our statutory objective to achieve the best health outcomes achievable from available funding.
Achieving health equity
As a Crown Entity and Tiriti o Waitangi partner, achieving health equity for Māori is a key priority. We also need to meet the needs of Pacific peoples, disabled people, and other groups who face barriers to accessing or using hospital medical devices.
The Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act made addressing health inequity a priority for the health and disability system. The establishment of Te Whatu Ora, Te Aka Whai Ora, and Waikaha has increased our ability to effectively collaborate and coordinate across our work.
As we build our relationships and partnerships, we will review the way that we work and re-think how we can better align with the principles and priorities of the system to ensure equity and te Tiriti are woven throughout.
Working with our sector partners
Moving to a new approach will involve a change for Te Whatu Ora, suppliers, people who use hospital medical devices, and Pharmac.
We’re committed to maintaining a collaborative approach as we keep developing the new way of working together.
As we have reached key points, we have consulted on where we’ve got to, and the feedback is helping us as we develop the next stage.
Previous consultations on how Pharmac should manage devices
If you have any feedback or would like to be involved as we develop up our work, please email us at enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz
Who to contact
If you have questions about our hospital medical devices work programme, email enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz