Healthcare technology
requirements relating to Brexit which haven’t helped,” Simon commented. He went on to discuss procurement weighting: “At the moment the NHS gives a 10% weighting to anything that is sustainable, but that can mean all sorts of things… Have you got a carbon reduction plan? Yes? Okay, you can have 10%…So, it’s not really about sustainability, it’s about ‘have you got a piece of paper that says you’re going to reduce your carbon - yes or no?”
He added that there are also challenges
around funding – only 3.9% of the NHS budget is allocated to medical technology and cost is still considered first, before impact. Procurement departments need to move to value-based procurement for sustainability to be a more influential factor in decision making. However, it is also “easier to do nothing” when it comes to implementing technologies onto the care pathway. If a technology disrupts the care pathway – even in a beneficial way – this can make adoption more challenging. Despite the NHS declaring its intentions to hit Net Zero, he believes there needs to be greater incentives for companies developing solutions that could help the NHS achieve its target, as the current risk versus reward is a barrier to innovation. “We were very lucky to get a Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for what would have been the first Net Zero, fully sustainable product in the world. They gave us a bit of money to get so far but, when the next round came along, they had slashed the budget and there wasn’t enough to either give us some money or give it to other people that had also come up with some great ideas. They suggested our device “wasn’t compelling”, despite the inherent
For around about twenty years, it’s been perfectly feasible to produce sustainable medical devices – organic polymers, alternatives to metal and more sustainable electronics have been available, and yet, out of two million medical devices in a catalogue, you wouldn’t be able to find a single sustainable medical device. So, why hasn’t it happened?
health and sustainability credentials. “It is rumoured that next year, there may be no funding at all for Net Zero – so where does that leave companies that are trying to get sustainable innovations into the NHS? It’s extraordinarily difficult. There is a lack of tangible help and assistance for people that are coming up with innovative ideas to help the NHS,” Simon continued. He believes that the lack of support is also putting off larger HealthTech manufacturers from investing in developing disruptive sustainable innovations. “Why would they want to invest into something that’s incredibly risky, when they can invest in something they know they’re going to get some money back for? Why should they go down the sustainability route?” He pointed out that it costs more to make something that’s sustainable and, in terms of risk versus reward, the 10% procurement weighting is not enough. Typically, a sustainable material, a biopolymer for example, is around four times the price of a standard petroleum-
based polymer. “These are medical grade plastics that have
been available for about twenty years, but nobody is using them,” he commented. The additional cost of these materials is a major factor at a time when the HeathTech sector is also facing significant costs associated with the regulatory pathway. “The MDR process is costing manufacturers
a lot of money. Somebody recently told me they’d had an audit. It was £15,000 per person and there were two people who arrived on their premises unannounced to do the audit. I’m a start-up, so where am I going to get £30,000 from, just like that? It’s extraordinary. “The commitment is risky, it’s expensive and it’s also time consuming. I’ve decided to go down the sustainability route, and have made it incredibly difficult for myself, but I’m much, much happier doing it this way – because that’s what I truly believe in,” Simon explained. He added that a lack of pressure and/or encouragement from the customer is a huge barrier and this needs to change.
Case study Simon went on to present a case study for one type of medical device out of two million – an electric battery suction (EBS) device (RRP £1312) and a sustainable alternative (RRP £95). The embodied carbon of the NHS EBS inventory (an estimated 40,000 units) is 906 Tonnes CO2e (based on IEC independently peer reviewed figures). This is the equivalent to felling 23,842 oak
trees and does not include the manufacturing, sales, delivery, consumables, preventative maintenance, spares, electricity or end of life (2000 Tonnes CO2e total). The sustainable alternative does the same
job to the same ISO standard and fits into the same care pathway, but has a footprint of 0.04 Tonnes CO2e (based on IEC independently peer reviewed figures). This is the equivalent of felling one small oak tree. This is currently a prototype device, but the aim is to swap the silicone parts
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