£10bn NHS medtech spend undermined by ‘lack of data’, warns DHSC director

The lack of information about the performance and value for money of medtech products is leading to ineffective procurement and wasting scarce NHS funding, a senior government official has told HSJ.

The Department of Health and Social Care’s MedTech director David Lawson told a roundtable organised by HSJ this month that “unwarranted variation” in the procurement process was “tying up funding that could otherwise be deployed to adopt and accelerate the use of the most effective medtech”.

The NHS spends around £10bn each year on medical technology according to government estimates.

Mr Lawson blamed the “variation” on the “lack of information” about the medtech products that would let “decision makers at a local level… make informed, evidence-based decisions.”

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Source: HSJ, 16 September 2024