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NHS must move from ‘cheapest first’ to ‘value based’ procurement of MedTech
The government has announced that the NHS will move from a ‘cheapest-first’ to a ‘patient-first’ approach to purchasing cutting-edge medical technology. The NHS currently spends around £10 billion per year on MedTech, but the government says that the NHS has previously opted to buy tech based “primarily on cost rather than effectiveness”. It says that the new approach will save billions of pounds by considering how well the pioneering equipment works for patients in the long term, supports patient and staff safety, and drives down future costs, including warranty. Health Minister, Zubir Ahmed, visited Barts Health NHS Trust and saw first-hand the benefits of purchasing MedTech based on wider factors other than cheapest cost. “Our Plan for Change is boosting NHS productivity and making sure every pound of taxpayer money works harder for patients than ever before. As our greatest minds develop new lifesaving technology and the technological revolution takes off, we are doing away with the sticking plaster spending mentality and ensuring long-term patient outcomes are at the heart of every spending decision. We must invest to save, and by purchasing the most effective technology, not just the cheapest, we’ll improve patient care, cut waiting times and drive long-term cost savings, as we build an NHS fit for the future,” Zubir Ahmed said. Better, more innovative MedTech is pivotal
to cutting NHS waiting lists by supporting more productive and safer patient care and enabling faster and more accurate diagnostics. This means getting patients home quicker and freeing up staff time to allow them to see and treat more patients. The move represents a fundamental shift toward procurement practices that value continuity of supply over just cost. In early trials, Barts tested an innovative mesh in procedures involving cardiology patients at
follow-up time, freeing up clinicians to treat more patients. Fiona Bride, Interim Chief Commercial Officer
high risk of infection. NHS Trusts were hesitant to purchase this product because of high cost and not knowing which patients would benefit in a cost- effective manner. By investing in this innovation, Barts found it dramatically reduced infection rates and hospital re-admissions and delivered cost savings of more than £1,100 per patient per year - an annual saving of £103,000 for the Trust. Bradley Day, Interim Managing Director at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “At Barts, we’re really excited to see value-based procurement being scaled across the NHS. The Trust were early participants in the programme, using it to develop our BLISTER tool that has been proven to reduce cardiac device infections, enhance patient outcomes and deliver over £103,0000 in annual savings. The tool, developed through a value-based procurement approach, is good for patients and good for taxpayers, as is the programme itself.” Elsewhere, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS
Trust increased its use of a ‘remote monitoring’ function used in small, electronic devices implanted in the body to monitor, regulate and treat irregular or dangerous heart rhythms. Investing in the technology can cost around £500 to £600 per patient, which deters many Trusts, but the pilot showed major benefits, including a huge 43% reduction in hospitalisations and reduced clinical
and Director of Medicines Value and Access at NHS England, said: “Value-based procurement has already improved how we secure medicines, and now it’s being applied to the equipment patients rely on every day. This is about more than cost. It’s about working with suppliers to deliver technologies that bring real value - with better outcomes for patients, greater efficiency for the NHS and sustainable care for the future.” Following early trials of value-based
procurement guidance and extensive engagement across the health system, including with industry and patient groups, 13 NHS Trusts will pilot the new guidance, with rollout across the NHS expected by early 2026. As well as supporting individual Trusts to purchase MedTech, the government is partnering with NHS Supply Chain and the NHS London Procurement Partnership to roll out value- based procurement across the country - including for purchasing technology and devices used in cardiology and vascular treatment and the use of AI in clinical settings. The NHS Supply Chain’s Cardiology and Vascular Framework alone is worth approximately £1 billion. Andrew New, CEO of NHS Supply Chain, said:
“Through value-based procurement we are able to ensure that procurement decisions are based on more than just product cost, with patient outcomes, sustainability and the total cost across the whole patient pathway key considerations. “As the national provider of procurement services, NHS Supply Chain is committed to working with the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS Trusts to apply this approach through our contracts, with the first to go live via three frameworks, as part of this pilot, which will help us to learn and refine our approach for the future.”
AI to be trialled at unprecedented scale across NHS screening
Millions of patients could receive quicker diagnoses and treatment, as pioneering AI tools are tested on an unprecedented scale in NHS screening services, thanks to a ground-breaking new cloud system. A new AI research screening platform dubbed
AIR-SP - backed by nearly £6 million in government funding - is being built by NHS England to enable Trusts across the country to join trials of AI in screening to help speed up diagnosis. The platform will offer NHS staff access to revolutionary AI tools in trials to help analyse screening images and
pinpoint abnormalities, including signs of cancer. Currently, the NHS lacks the digital tools to
deploy AI in screening quickly, safely and at scale - 90% of AI tools remain stuck in pilot phases due to over-reliance on temporary IT setups in each individual Trust. Even if one tool is deemed effective by one Trust, every single other Trust in the NHS must start the process of testing the tool from scratch and set up new databases to access images generated by the AI. The new NHS- wide cloud will hold multiple AI tools in a single
environment that will have secure connections to all NHS Trusts. It will cut down the time and costs associated with rolling out AI research studies. The Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, said: “The
AI revolution is here, and we are arming staff with the latest ground-breaking technology, so patients get faster and smarter care. As our world-leading scientists develop new lifesaving AI tools, this new cloud platform will see them rolled out to patients in research trials right across the country, so staff can treat patients quicker with cutting-edge tech.”
November 2025 I
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