Written Question·Department of Health and Social Care·UIN 182569
Medical Equipment: Procurement
Tabled: 25 April 2023
Answered: 4 May 2023
Question
Jim Shannon
Democratic Unionist Party — Strangford
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact on patient safety of limiting the procurement of single-use medical devices due to the weighting on net zero within NHS procurement decisions.
Answer
Medical device purchasing decisions are made by individual National Health Service organisations. Decisions are made using frameworks setting out a standardised set of core requirements that include those related to patient safety. NHS England maintains a variety of published guidance using the latest evidence, including on the sterilisation and decontamination of reusable medical equipment and the use of single-use equipment.