Building relationships with a joint national medical devices action plan

“The action plan outlines a relationship model and establishes aims, outcomes and actions associated with the procurement and use of hospital medical devices,” says Pharmac’s Manager of Device Strategy and Development Danae Staples-Moon.

“With the establishment of Te Whatu Ora and the implementation of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act, we have a new and exciting health and disability landscape.

“This action plan will help us to build relationships within Te Whatu Ora that will best utilise our individual strengths, skills, and resources,” says Staples-Moon.

Having clear responsibilities is important as Pharmac increases its management of hospital medical devices.

“Both Pharmac and Te Whatu Ora have roles in the management of hospital medical devices. The action plan will help us to meet the clinical, strategic, and sustainability aims of both organisations, without unnecessary and accidental duplication.

“There’s some work to be done to develop the next steps, and I’m confident that our shared strengths will help us to deliver an effective and integrated, system-wide approach that will secure better health outcomes for New Zealand,” said Staples-Moon.

The National Medical Devices Action Plan has five aims. These are:

• rationalising the range of hospital medical devices to meet clinical and strategic requirements
• reducing the emissions and the cost of supply, while increasing availability and visibility of hospital medical devices
• having all appropriate hospital medical devices covered by national contracts
• establishing a consistent national health technology assessment process to introduce new technology and to remove hospital medical devices
• having a consistent approach for single use vs reusing or reprocessing reusable medical devices.