Department of Health and Social Care: Medical technology strategy (3 February 2023)

Summary

Medical technology, or ‘medtech’, is of vital importance to the UK health and care system. The Government's first Medical technology strategy outlines how it will ensure the health and social care system can reliably access safe, effective and innovative medical technologies that support the continued delivery of high-quality care, outstanding patient safety and excellent patient outcomes in a way that makes the best use of taxpayer money.

Content

Vision for medtech

The vision focusses on 3 central objectives:

• right product
• right price
• right place.

These concepts centre on delivering the highest quality of care for patients and interact with and balance against each other - often, as focus on one component increases, focus on the others can decrease. Striking the best possible balance between these objectives is difficult, but the aim is to reach an optimal point where all 3 elements are weighted appropriately so the UK medtech sector best supports the UK health and care system in delivering improved health outcomes for patients.

Four priority areas

Having considered the broader landscape and current activity, the strategy has identified four priority areas:

• Priority 1: resilience and continuity of supply.
• Priority 2: innovative and dynamic markets.
• Priority 3: enabling infrastructure.
• Priority 4: specific market focusses.