Decision to list medical thermometer products
PHARMAC is pleased to announce the approval of individual agreements with Ecomed Trading Pty Ltd (“Ecomed”) and Pharmaco (NZ) Ltd (“Pharmaco”) for the supply of medical thermometer products.
This was the subject of a consultation letter dated 30 October 2017.
In summary, this will result in:
- 56 products being listed in Part III of Section H of the Pharmaceutical Schedule from 1 February 2018.
- All products being listed are new to DHBs and will provide an increased range of medical thermometer products from which clinicians can choose.
|
Supplier |
Brands |
Number of products |
Annual Impact on DHBs |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Ecomed |
Riester DeRoyal |
46 |
Nil (new products) |
|
Pharmaco |
Adtemp™Adtemp™ II |
10 |
Nil (new products) |
- DHB hospitals would continue to be able to choose which medical devices they purchase, however would need to use these agreements should they choose to purchase Ecomed or Pharmaco products listed in the Pharmaceutical Schedule.
Any changes to the original proposals?
During consultation, a question was raised regarding provision of calibration equipment for the medical thermometers. The agreement with Pharmaco was amended to include a provision that a replacement infrared thermometer would be provided at no cost in the event that the temperature readings fall out of a warranted error range, rather than it being recalibrated. The warranted error ranges are detailed in the manufacturer’s specification documentation.
Details of the decision
In February 2016 PHARMAC issued a Request for Proposals for medical thermometer products. The RFP was for non-exclusive national agreements for listing on the Pharmaceutical Schedule.
Ecomed and Pharmaco’s proposals met the associated RFP requirements and PHARMAC has entered into agreements with them for supply of medical thermometers to be listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule. This means that DHB hospitals must use the PHARMAC Agreement should they choose to use these products from 1 February 2018.
Educational services will be provided by both suppliers to DHB personnel on the appropriate use of their medical devices and this will be arranged in formats and at times agreed with individual DHBs.
The agreements are not exclusive. DHBs can continue to purchase other brands of medical thermometers. We expect to consult on further provisional agreements with other suppliers in these categories over the next few months.
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 November 2017 were considered in their entirety in making a decision on the proposed changes.
Most responses were supportive of the proposal, and the following issues were raised in relation to specific aspects of the proposal:
| Theme | Comment |
| A lack of details in the consultation. | Detailed information on the products and specifics included in the Agreement were provided to DHB Procurement Managers. |
| Questioned whether Ecomed and Pharmaco would supply devices to enable calibration checks by DHB Clinical Engineers or require their devices to be sent off-site for assessment. | After consultation, Pharmaco offered free replacements on their infrared medical thermometers that ceased operation within the warranted standard error margin for temperature measurement. An amendment dated 6 December 2017 was agreed to address this. |
| Noted that DHBs already stock calibration devices for incumbent models and so suggested a provision that Ecomed and Pharmaco make calibration devices available on the first purchase of relevant medical thermometers | The medical thermometers provided by Ecomed are low-cost digital thermometers which would be replaced rather than recalibrated in the event of their ceasing to operate as warranted. Other products are single use. |
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.