A Kiwi firm saving millions in hospital waste has struggled locally, even as it opens a new facility in Australia.
Founded in 2017, Medsalv has developed “safe and effective remanufacturing processes” for over 50 medical devices, enabling up to 14 reuses and diverting waste from landfills.
The Christchurch company has opened a facility in the Australian state of Victoria, with support from the state government.
Victoria’s economic growth minister Tim Pallas said attracting the company to set up operations was a win for the Australian state’s health system, jobs and sustainability.
“This new facility will contribute to a more resilient supply chain, bolster our advanced manufacturing capabilities, and secure more opportunities for workers now and in the future,” he said.
Founder Oliver Hunt said while the company operates in some hospitals in New Zealand, Medsalv is struggling to get its remanufactured product onto Pharmac’s hospital medical devices list.
He said the average saving on its products is 41.3%.
“We’ve built this world-leading technology that really delivers in healthcare in terms of sustainability, in terms of local employment, in terms of making a difference to the costs,” he told 1News.
Hunt added: “Those relationships are in the public sector more around collecting product than they are collecting and returning it.
“The actions of the way the market works with Pharmac at the moment make it almost impossible for us to supply products back to those other hospitals in some cases.”
Pharmac medical devices director Catherine Epps said the agency works with a lot of suppliers to get the best deals for medicines and devices for New Zealanders.
“To do that, we have well-laid-out procurement processes to ensure the process is fair, open, and competitive. We would use the same processes in any dealings with Medsalv.
“Medsalv is a supplier that would like to contract with Pharmac to supply their reprocessed medical devices through the Hospital Medical Devices List.
“While it currently does not have an agreement with Pharmac, it continues to have significant sales with public hospitals in New Zealand.”
Epps said Pharmac has met with Medsalv on several occasions and “advised they are welcome to submit bids for contracts, like any other supplier”.
Meanwhile, Associate Health Minister David Seymour recently wrote to Pharmac to tell officials “they need to really partner with clinicians providers and patients”.
“I’ve told them that they need to think really hard about how we get value for money and they need to be innovative when they think about assessment and procurement.
“I’ve also said it’s clearly their job to independently make these decisions.
“Pharmac’s over 30 years old and it’s very good at controlling costs, but we want it to maximise the benefit of medical technology.
“My direction letter says: ‘Look, you know there’s your budget now, but also ask the question – could you save the government money, if we spent more elsewhere?'”
Hunt said Pharmac needs to adopt innovation.
“For a government entity to refuse to adopt innovation or allow new suppliers who are bringing their innovation into the market, it seems a little bit disingenuous,” said Hunt.
