Working together on the Hospital Medical Devices Programme
Earlier this year, Te Pātaka Whaioranga – Pharmac and Te Whatu Ora agreed to work together to progress the Hospital Medical Devices programme.
“Since the creation of Te Whatu Ora, it’s become increasingly obvious that we can achieve even more by working together," says Director of Medical Devices, Catherine Epps.
“We’re both national entities now. It’s important that we utilise the skills of our people, and the opportunity of working more closely to improve health outcomes. We need to identify how our work improves theirs and vice versa.”
To read more, go to Working together on the Hospital Medical Devices Programme |
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Devices dashboard
How the national contracts are tracking as of December 2023
| 163,000 devices under contract covering $544m of annual hospital expenditure on medical devices. |
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Join us as we speak to Catherine Epps, Pharmac's Director of Medical Devices, about her background, what motivated her to join Pharmac, and what she’s aiming to achieve in her new role.
Click here to read the transcript
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The Hospital Medical Devices List – is your product on there?
Pharmac is building a Hospital Medical Devices List. Suppliers will need to have their products on the list if they want to supply Te Whatu Ora Hospitals and specialist services in the future.
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Pharmac Contracts 101
To help new suppliers and users of these agreements, we will have a regular section in Device Advice to outline some of our standard terms. This edition we are starting with Clause 1.4b – which relates to listing on the Schedule.
Clause 1.4b states: You are not permitted to supply any medical device to a Te Whatu Ora Hospital that is not listed on the Pharmaceutical Schedule, if the therapeutic purpose of that medical device is similar to the therapeutic purpose of a Medical Device that is listed, without first notifying Pharmac and without Pharmac's express written consent, such consent not to be unreasonably withheld.
The intent of Clause 1.4(b) is to ensure that the Pharmac agreement comprehensively covers all hospital medical devices the contracted supplier offers within a hospital medical devices category.
Suppliers need to obtain consent from Pharmac before bringing new products in a previously contracted product area to Te Whatu Ora.
Once an item is delisted from the Pharmaceutical Schedule, it can no longer be sold to Te Whatu Ora without Pharmac’s consent. Pharmac must be reasonable when considering requests from suppliers under this clause.
These processes ensure Te Whatu Ora hospitals can purchase a supplier’s hospital medical devices without running a separate procurement process, and ensures all parties understand the terms under which each device is supplied.
Suppliers that need to obtain consent under this clause can contact their Contract Manager at Pharmac or email our contract management team.
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We notify all new supplier agreements and list all new proposals on the Consultations and Decisions page on the Pharmac website. You can also keep track of what’s happening in each category on our hospital devices page. |
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Ongoing supply challenges for medical devices
We are working with suppliers, Te Whatu Ora hospitals, and the Ministry of Health, to minimise the impact of supply issues for hospitals and people in care. If you are experiencing any issues in the supply of Pharmac contracted medical devices, email our email our contract management team.
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We'd love to hear from youWe welcome any feedback on our work, our website, or this newsletter. You can email enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz or contact the person identified in a specific consultation or notification. Noho ora mai rā!
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