1. Public Service Review: Central Government: issue 22
F
rom a company’s perspective,
the UK has one of the largest
medical device markets in the
world, valued at US$8.5bn in 2011,
and is also predicted to increase by
3.5% per annum to attain a value of
US$10.1bn by 2016. At the same
time, for many in the industry, the
NHS is perceived as a highly complex
bureaucracy.
The latest published government
plans involve a 9% cut in capital
health spending in 2011, and a
substantial reform programme for the
management of the NHS. Under it,
several layers of bureaucracy are to
be removed, and General Practitioners
given control of their own budgets.
This article describes M3AT’s thoughts
about the NHS in its attempts to
develop and fast track innovative
devices such as Urocomfor™ –
a new Urine Management System –
to NHS patients.
The NHS and national
contracts: working in close
collaboration with the
medical device industry
‘Our aim is to provide more than £1bn
of savings to the NHS by 2016 so that
resources are released for NHS trusts
and healthcare organisations to focus
on quality frontline patient care,
managing costs and achieving sustain-
able value. We provide end-to-end
supply chain services incorporating
procurement, logistics, e-commerce,
and customer and supplier support.
We manage the procurement, sourcing
and delivery of over 620,000 products
ranging from bandages to baked
beans, from gloves to implants, and
even diagnostic equipment such as
MRI scanners.’ (mission statement
NHS Supply Chain).
For everyone in the business, this is the
real starting point if you hope one day
to deliver your product(s) to NHS trusts.
On entering the NHS supply chain
website (www.supplychain.nhs.uk), one
cannot fail to notice the staggering
number of products (620,000) listed in
the NHS catalogue. Once you actually
open the (paper) catalogue, it seems
obvious that the current classification
should be re-thought, and the listed
products split into three groups: need
to have; nice to have; not needed any
more. Pruning the NHS catalogue
seems therefore to be a critical and
urgent task. But who could perform
such a task? The answer could be in
the creation of an independent and
transparent body whose values would
be to defend national public health
interests. This body could comprise
recognised medical device experts
within the NHS and would elaborate
and update key product specifica-
tions/criteria with the help of the
medical device industry and would
become the necessary medical back-
bone for national contracts, reducing
the number of products listed and
ultimately promoting essential,
innovative and up-to-date products
to NHS patients and staff.
The NHS Direct from
Manufacturer (DfM) model:
thinking differently
The NHS currently operates on a Full
Service Vendor (FSV) procurement
model, with around 85% of consum-
ables being manufactured offshore,
and then purchased through regional
and global suppliers. The delivery of
this service adds a further 20 to 30%
to the overall costs of these products.
Through their new Direct from
Manufacture (DfM) model, NHS
Supply Chain is also thinking about
how to eliminate this cost for NHS
trusts. In our opinion, this new inno-
vative NHS project is an interesting
idea but it seems unfortunately
under-managed and should probably
be handled by the same independent
body mentioned above.
The NHS and the medical
device industry: a missing link
‘If we – the staff, clinicians, managers
and leaders within the NHS – continue
to think as we have always thought,
we are likely to get the same results
we have done before.’ (NHS Institute
of Innovation and Improvement).
Start-up companies such as M3AT who
truly try to innovate find it sometimes
difficult and frustrating when eventually
told by the NHS Supply Chain that the
national contract is being extended
another year (therefore the product
cannot appear in the catalogue) and
that the DfM model can only apply
once we are on the national contract.
Conclusion
Innovation should not discriminate
against start-up companies with global
positive impact on patient safety,
patient care and patient dignity. We at
M3AT dare to think differently at all
levels of the company when it comes
to generating new ideas, putting them
into practice and developing cost-
effective products. We would hope
that the NHS Supply Chain would to
do the same – in the interests of NHS
patients and staff.
Case Study: making Urocomfor™
available to NHS patients
The Missing Link
in Urine Management
On 1st July 2010 M3AT won in the
United Kingdom the prestigious
PromoCon/ACA ‘Look Good, Feel
Good’ (LGFG) Award for Urocomfor™.
Patients who are continent and
conscious but bed or chair bound,
while enjoying a certain degree of
autonomy, need to pass urine regu-
larly and can experience frustration in
this situation. This can vary from mild
PROFILE
Dare to think differently
How innovative medical devices could reach NHS patients…
1

2. Public Service Review: Central Government: issue 22
irritation to extreme pain. They can
even, sometimes, be injured. Until
now, no suitable device/product
existed that genuinely met this vital,
personal, biological need: to pass
urine in a safe, discreet and conven-
ient way at any given time 24/7.
Urocomfor™ is a single use Poly
Ethylene (PE) bag mounted with a
semi-rigid sleeve for opening and a
free flow in, anti-reflux valve to
prevent retrograde urine back flow.
Urocomfor™ is for external use only
and intended for patients who are
bed or chair bound as a consequence
of illness, treatment or age. M3AT is
targeting nursing staff and clinicians
interfacing with these patients.
Key settings are: ambulance, A&E,
radiology, day time surgery, post-
surgery, rehabilitation centres, nursing
homes, home care.
Urocomfor™: enhancing patient
safety, autonomy and dignity
Urocomfor™ gives patients more
autonomy and dignity, ultimately
improving their perception of the
hospital experience. On a technical
level, it is:
■ Intuitive (easy to pass urine while
lying down);
■ Discreet;
■ Reliable, safe and easy to use.
Urocomfor™: empowering nurses
to deliver high-quality care
Urocomfor™ optimises hospital
efficiency by freeing nurses from an
unnecessary and outdated task. On
a medical level, it:
■ Alleviates painful chronic urine
retention;
■ Minimises risk of infections;
■ Restores and maintains normal
bladder function.
Urocomfor™: optimising
performance, costs and
hospital image
‘About 200,000 falls are reported in
acute hospitals across England and
Wales every year, with more than
36,000 in mental health units and
38,000 in community hospitals.’
(National Patient Safety Agency
(NPSA) 2010)
Urocomfor™ reduces nursing time,
hospital infection/accident related
costs and warehouse and logistic
costs. Hospitals will recoup their entire
initial investment within a few weeks by
purchasing Urocomfor™. In addition,
patient satisfaction will enhance
hospital image. On a financial level it:
■ Frees-up precious nursing time;
■ Reduces HAI related costs (antibi-
otics, lab tests);
■ Reduces accident related costs
(surgery, hospital stay).
The combination of the easy-to-use
leakage-proof system, disposable
concept and the compact design
provides a unique set of benefits for
patients, nurses as well as hospital
administration as described in Fig. 1.
Conclusion
We strongly believe that Urocomfor™
is a disruptive technology that will set
a new standard in the marketplace by
becoming the product of choice. Over
time it will replace traditional reusable
urinals and bed pans, single-use pulp
urinals and in some instances sheaths
(male external catheters), diapers and
urinary short-term Foley catheters.
M3AT
dudelzak@m3at.com
www.urocomfor.com
www.healthcareinnovationexpo.com/
exhibitors-m3at.asp
www.exhausmed.com
PROFILE
2
Swiss-based M3AT is an independent medical product manufacturing
company, with prime focus on developing and selling innovative,
single use products that meet unaddressed patient and clinical needs
with environmentally sustainable materials
(source: Journal of Hospital Infection (2008) 68, 130-136)
Fig. 1: A schematic overview of the benefits provided by UROCOMFORTM
from the patient’s, nurse’s and hospital’s point of view