Voices of Industry Home Background Voices of Industry is run by MedilinkWM
Tony Davis "The Office for Life Sciences has launched its Blueprint, a 'package of measures that has the potential to transform the UK for the life sciences industry'.
Is it right - does it address your problems?"
- Tony Davis

 
Tony Davis It's been over a year since Gordon Brown guaranteed small businesses would be paid within 10 days for work done for the government, including the NHS. Is it happening?
09:00:00am Nov-26th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
2 people disagree with this
Medilink North West at 09:37:59am Dec-20th
Five company comments from Medilink North West:

I can confirm that the NHS pay us promptly, usually within 45 days Sometimes sooner providing they do not have a query on the invoice. Then it becomes a different story as it can take two months to sort out the problem because of their internal systems and procedures.

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Alan Press at 10:46:57am Dec-10th
The Voices of Industry process has given us timely market information about the 30-40 day payment terms many of our colleagues are enjoying and has spurred us to write the attached letter to those Trusts who are not honouring our contractual payment terms. We'll keep you posted on our success with it.

Click here to view the letter
Tony Davis at 10:35:02am Dec-10th
Today we issued the attached letter to Lord Drayson along with your comments regarding late NHS payments, we'll keep you posted on any response, but please continue to upload your thoughts and experiences.

Click here to view the letter
Jessica Fisher at 09:34:41am Dec-07th
Here is a quote from one of our member companies regarding late payments: In general we are getting prompt payment (Ave 3 weeks) from most NHS Trusts now, which is extremely welcome. Regarding Trusts, our only gripe is that some invoices are still taking 6 to 7 weeks but this is usually where staff have moved on and no one is sure about the signing off or of a delivery being made. More importantly however is NHS Shared Services in Wakefield, where we still have invoices as far back as May and July, where resolution can be very difficult because they can be hard to contact (email only and reference number) and take considerably longer to resolve outstanding payments. Improvement here is definitely sought.
Kevin Kiely at 09:34:41am Dec-07th
I have heard back from 8 of our member companies regarding their experiences with late payments, and I'm pleased to report that the unanimous response has been that they are not experiencing any trouble with the NHS paying on time. So I rang around a few companies today. Only one company said that they were continuing to experience difficulties, the others all indicated that they no longer had issues and that the position had improved significantly in the last year. The company that continues to have a negative experience indicates their primary issue would appear to be an organization called the Shared Business Service (SBS). It would appear that if invoices go into the Topcliffe facility in Wakefield and orders are processed via the SBS that they can wait many months for payment.
Rachel Goodall at 12:38:22pm Dec-04th
Our experience with NHS Supply Chain is they honour the terms and conditions of our contracts relating to payments, which are negotiated before signing.
Simon Hardman at 11:07:20am Dec-04th
Reviewing our top Local Authority accounts over the last six months, we are experiencing an average of 55 days between invoice date and payment receipt.
I think it will always be impossible for LA's to pay within 10 days due to the time needed for OT's to revisit the installation and sign it off as being okay to pay. As you'll see, however, the time needed for this inspection and the subsequent time taken to flow through the LA to ultimate payment can be quite long
Adrian Flowerday at 11:02:48am Dec-04th
There is a wide range of attitudes and abilities when it comes to paying mainly due to the process by which an invoice is received and processed
At Southampton for example, we are usually paid within 14 days, constantly and reliably
At others, what we find is that we have to chase it all the way, to the point of feeling that we are pushing too hard. Often, we have to check that certain people have received the invoice and passed it onto the next person. Occasionally the invoice gets stuck on someone's desk whilst they are off for the summer, etc. In other cases the stores dept do not let accounts know that product is delivered.
If you are a new supplier it often stalls as we have to be put on the system, and that does not seem to happen until 30 days and we start chasing
Peter Dines at 01:06:08pm Dec-03rd
NHS organisations appear increasingly willing to admit to serious cash shortages and an inability to pay suppliers promptly.
Some openly acknowledge their policy to only pay those from whom urgent supplies are required or who shout loudest.
Obtaining payment is therefore seemingly dependent upon robust credit control procedures yet even then some organisations manage to avoid prompt payment by hiding behind internal procedures or threatening to withdraw companies from the supply chain.
We could currently cite a selection of NHS organisations who are intentionally or knowingly failing to adhere to the Government's guidelines.
Tony Wilson at 09:35:58am Dec-03rd
We have current experience with the Finance Dept of a major London Teaching Hospital that has categorically stated its policy is to pay on 90 day terms.
Secondly, we are experiencing a total disconnect between many NHS procurement functions who use Shared Service Centres to process their payments. Payments are often delayed due to references quoted by the Procurement function on their orders being unrecognised by Shared Services and causing considerable delay to settlements. Not withstanding the basic fact that Shared Services are incredibly difficult to communicate with.
Tony Davis The European Commission has asked us to become advisors on a future of medical devices EU parliament process. We are representing on behalf of UK industry on Trade and Innovation.
Please let me know your thoughts on the following four issues:

- Is the European regulatory framework appropriate?
- What are the main market access challenges and how would you reduce the technical barriers to trade between member states?
- Is it necessary to improve international regulatory coordination?
- Is counterfeiting a significant issue for medical devices?

However any observations on selling into Europe would be more than welcome.
12:07:26pm Oct-20th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Mike Edwards at 07:45:07pm Nov-01st
The Medical Devices Directive is an adequate tool for ensuring safety and performance of medical devices placed on the European market. The problems have been in its correct implementation by European Member States. Much can still be achieved by all stakeholders to ensure we have a common approach to its correct implementation.
Rod Palmer at 03:03:12pm Oct-30th
Individual countries have additional approval regimes ranging from the understandable technical (Germany, TUV approval, etc.) to the opaque and impenetrable (France). These are trade barriers in disguise, barriers that CE marking was supposed to eliminate. And is there a danger that endless, needless refinement and complexity will result in an expensive and debilitating burden for SMEs? Yes!
Trevor Lewis at 10:40:51am Oct-28th
There is a need for the methods of paying for all types of devices to be better understood throughout Europe and it made easier for manufacturers to access the requirements, especially as evidence-based purchasing and e-procurement become more commonplace throughout the Community.
The European regulatory framework for most medical devices works very well and is a flexible system that allows manufacturers some choice in the conformity assessment route chosen to achieve CE marketing, this is good for both large and small companies, especially startups. The recent Revision of the New Approach brings the processes for CE marking closer to those established and used to good effect in the medical device sector.
Andrew Davidson at 06:22:53pm Oct-27th
Areas of concern for us are 1) Development of local registrations - here I know at least one country has created non tariff barriers that do not seem to take CE marking as it should be. This seems wrong and makes it harder to operate as a new SME with export intentions; 2)Poor payment record - I hear horror stories about some public hospitals in certain countries taking up to two years to pay, this contrasts markedly with the current UK government policy where payments are now often within 2 weeks from the NHS.
Peter McGuinness at 04:22:58pm Oct-27th
The biggest challenge we face in Europe is competition from non EU imports which do not comply with medical device regulation, and in some cases have fake CE marks. Despite this they are being sold openly and cheaply across Europe.
Kirk Buller at 02:30:48pm Oct-27th
A big issue for us is Vigilance reporting. Whilst the Competent Authorities do talk to each other, a company can end up having separate correspondence on the same issue with the CA in each country where the product is sold. The eventual adopting of the Eudamed database might improve this, but for political reasons it is likely to remain.
Trevor Lewis at 04:30:16pm Oct-22nd
The differences between pharmaceutical and device regulation has been discussed at length by ABHI and Eucomed, the need is to keep the regulatory frameworks independent of each other and not attempt to merge them or absorb their management completely into the pharmaceutical regime.
Chris Bantock (Industry Sponsorship - Medical Devices, Department of Health) The Department of Health welcomes this initiative as a way of identifying the issues specific to SMEs in the UK-based life sciences industries. We recognise that SMEs are the life blood of industrial innovation. They therefore have a crucial contribution to make in developing advanced treatments for patients and stimulating a buoyant, competitive domestic market.

That is why we are working closely with BIS and the medical technology industry, which comprises about 80% SMEs, in developing an agenda to help improve the UK environment for SMEs.
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10:29:59am Jun-30th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Michelle Dalton The Proposal document is complete and ready for comment/feedback. Please feed any thoughts/edits directly back to me via email Michelle@MedilinkWM.co.uk or feel free to upload as a comment on this microsite.

Tony Davis will be delivering the final proposal document to Lord Drayson and the OLS on Tuesday, 30 June 2009. Thank you to everyone who has participated in our Voices of Industry campaign.

Click here to Download
04:25:26pm Jun-25th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Alan Press We know there are grants available to support companies to export, but we have not applied for any recently because the forms are so cumbersome the return is not worth it. In the last two years alone we have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on documentation and approvals in other countries, with no support from UKTI. With subsidy to expand my overseas business I would be able to employ more people and increase the overall wealth of the country.
03:52:12pm Jun-25th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Peter Ellingworth It is vitally important for the SME voice within the medical technology and healthcare market, and the life sciences sector as a whole, to be heard and appreciated. This is a strong theme from the report which industry and government has recently published and for which an action plan is now getting underway. As a majority stakeholder in medical manufacturing, the UK SME community plays a vital role in the growth and prosperity of larger businesses with its quick response times, competitive pricing and entrepreneurial spirit.
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03:45:10pm Jun-25th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Simon Checkley I believe that my problem is one of 'product awareness' coupled with a relative lack of 'brand strength'. I realise that this is a fairly normal marketing problem and so makes my job that bit harder. However, I believe that the purchasing process within Trusts often follows the 'line of least resistance' and not necessarily 'best value'. By that I mean the line of least resistance is to continue to 'do what they have always done' (there's a saying that goes with this isn't there?).
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04:46:00pm Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Richard Barker SME organisations within the pharmaceutical market are a prolific source of innovation and new ideas, fuelling the work of many large companies.
With varied levels of funding and resource they are not often recognised for the contribution they make as a well-spring of innovation.

The Voices of Industry campaign demonstrates the willingness for each of the areas within Life Sciences (pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, healthcare and medical device technologies) to work together to ensure this vital sector is recognised at all levels.

The ABPI is happy to support this campaign and would like to encourage all of its members to participate
04:46:04pm Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Ashley Yeo (Principal Analyst - Healthcare Editor at Clinica-Scrip) The IVDs sector in the UK needs a long-term commitment to the early health model. A simply structured, well worded commitment to promoting, using and monitoring use of these technologies will result in benefits all round - to patients, to the healthcare system, and thus to the government. Too little is invested in this vital segment from the UK healthcare budget.
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04:36:35pm Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Andrew Ives .....and finally, I just wonder what percentage of funds allocated to stimulation of innovation in SMEs actually reaches the sharp end and how much disappears amongst the hoard of acronyms gathered to manage and distribute the money? My bet is less than 20%, any other views?
02:21:57pm Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Chris Ramsden What designers need is to gain ready access to the real needs within the NHS.

There needs to be face to face meeting with clinicians to discuss their real problems and develop a product brief and not be presented with a list of proposed solutions or specifications. It is the designer's skills in deriving the real problem that will lead to a more appropriate and creative solution to a problem.

Perhaps the NHS should offer 'Designer in Residence' opportunities where individuals can be a 'fly on the wall' and help in spotting potential opportunities for innovative products and services through a fresh pair of eyes.
09:55:29am Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Roy Lowndes We are looking for funding for marketing our new product for the prevention of infection in hospitals and better hygiene in the public sector, in the use of communal facilities in toilets. We have a quotation at £15.000 to produce what we require. The product will be manufactured and distributed in the region employing regional personnel.

This will provide an impact on business in the region, albeit on a small scale to begin with, as a short term positive impact. A large number of similar ventures across the region would help employment and progress in the region.
09:07:40am Jun-23rd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Nicholas Barnes In the current economic climate, it is clearly recognised that sufficient seed investment is difficult to attract and hence start-up companies find it difficult to become established. The availability of a matched seed capital investment fund, along the lines of the previous Spinner Matched Investment Fund (SMIF), would improve the financial stability of early stage life science companies. The matching of such funds by arms length external investment would allow minimal administrative costs and hence maximise the benefit of the matching fund.
10:44:10pm Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Nicholas Barnes Drug discovery and development is high risk (less than 1 in 5 drugs entering clinical development subsequently reaches the market) but high reward for successful projects; although the extensive drug development process means it is often many years before a chance of financial return. It is important that the bodies responsible for distributing government money in the form of grants recognise these special circumstances and are sympathetic to the needs of pharmaceutical R&D companies.
10:42:08pm Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Aisling Burnand MBE The BIA applauds this campaign. The chronic lack of access to capital is a challenge that unites all SMEs. These are particularly tough times for SMEs involved in crucial life sciences research, with viable enterprises still struggling to obtain the follow-on investment they need to be able to grow their businesses into the success stories of the future. Industry needs to send out a clear, united message on how to deal with this problem and get investment moving again. The package of work under discussion at the new Office for Life Sciences must be implemented to make a difference.
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02:08:02pm Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Judith Petts The West Midlands region benefits from two Medical Schools at universities of international standing. To capitalise on World-class research activity and facilitate the subsequent creation of spin-out companies, the University of Birmingham is planning to build a BioIncubator in close proximity to its College of Medical & Dental Sciences. Medicine at Birmingham was rated 8th in the UK in terms of quality and volume of activity in the recent Research Assessment Exercise. The College secures around £50m of new research funding each year, and currently has active research to the value of £200m.
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11:39:10am Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Martin Penver As a new SME, I can see the benefits of working with inventors / designers in developing new innovations. The danger for most SME's is that once a product hits high volumes, a large company buys the design and then out-sources its manufacture world-wide. SME's need to strategically focus on ensuring that once products are developed that they have the competitive edge to ensure production remains within their control throughout the lifecycle of the product. To have the competitive edge the Government needs to provide investment for SME's in developing new products, and encourage large companies to source manufacturing locally.
10:17:21am Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Richard Hutchins The medical technologies cluster in the West Midlands has seen significant growth in the last few years as many traditional manufacturing processes have been applied to healthcare products. We believe this cluster will continue to provide enormous opportunities for companies to reach new markets and customers. Advantage West Midlands is working with industry specialists Medilink West Midlands to encourage continued growth in this cluster and ensure our history of innovation continues to guarantee our prosperity.
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09:30:49am Jun-22nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Alison Mlot I think a one-off £4,000 grant for post-CE marked new product development this year would mean a company could (potentially) realise sales within 12 months.
10:27:50am Jun-21st   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Fran Geoghegan Companies aren't innovating because they need to focus their resources on business development. The Government could provide a small grant to companies to commission research work, which would then stimulate the economy in multiple ways.
09:27:56am Jun-20th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Chris Dyke If the government ran a 'Buy British' campaign, and provided a cash-incentive for large companies to source locally, I believe SMEs would see a positive impact on their bottom line this year.
09:21:57am Jun-19th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Richard Stone If there were a mechanism for easily identifying the procurement route within the NHS for a particular product, more companies would be able to achieve UK sales and not have to spend so much resource targeting overseas markets.
04:30:00pm Jun-18th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Awen Clement I am convinced that if the research voucher scheme were expanded to give SMEs the freedom to choose which university they want to work with, it would encourage more knowledge transfer from academia to industry.
12:00:00pm Jun-17th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Christina Keey-Andersen The Medical Technologies industry is one of the strongest performing industry sectors currently, but there is still much that could be done to improve the conditions for SMEs in this area. The Voices of Industry campaign is a great initiative by Medilink West Midlands to try to capture the issues facing SMEs today. The campaign will be used to make decision makers and policy shapers in central government listen to what industry has to say, so I hope as many companies as possible will take the time to share their views.
04:54:35pm Jun-16th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Gary Thorpe The interaction between SMEs, the NHS and Universities offers tremendous opportunities for innovation and assessment of value. It is essential the government ensures such links are facilitated by helping minimize barriers which may be encountered by academics, ensuring that appropriate incentives are in place and involvement in such partnerships is fully recognized in career progression.
04:07:23pm Jun-16th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Jon Holmes It would be useful if more research council R&D could be opened up to life sciences SMEs. It seems to me that universities are good at doing basic research into whether a given technology is feasible, but frequently very poor at the implementation and engineering of the experiment. I am talking about designing and building proof-of-concept prototypes. Universities should be allowed and encouraged to employ SMEs to do this work, on a basis that is worthwhile. SBIR is a start but too inflexible and too limited in scope.
04:05:09pm Jun-16th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Katy Draper Real issue is getting companies and the clinicians working closer together, remove all of the red tape in the middle. Moves to encourage an understanding and partnership between clinicians (medics, nurses, physios etc et) and industry would be fantastic. How many of the people running the government quango or NHS management team have ever been near a patient or actually worked in the healthcare industry in a serious way. We need more people in the interface who genuinely understand the issues they are working with.
12:32:45pm Jun-16th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Tony Davis

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04:06:35pm Jun-15th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Allen R Green AKI (a Technical Injection Moulding company) has the capability to serve the medical and life science markets but the first question we are often asked is "do you have a clean room"? Here is the "catch 22". We cannot afford to speculate our limited cash resources on equipment that may or may not lead to new business in this market place. On the other hand, it is difficult to convince new prospects in the medical and life science markets in the absence of existing business.
08:35:33am Jun-15th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Rob Chesters I feel a public health campaign targeting the ageing population and their families and showing the products/services they could purchase to make their lives better would mean sales this year for SMEs
04:20:00pm Jun-12th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Lucy Watkins Id like government to impose an import barrier on products we can manufacture here, like other countries do.
04:15:00pm Jun-12th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Steve May-Russell There is a recognised gap between good ideas and outstanding commercial products and services. The strategic design industry with proven capability of delivering exactly the kind of support needed to bridge this gap is being ignored. Resolve the relationship between the government's innovation strategy, the strategic design industry and universities in the UK. Stop the disruption caused to the design industry by publicly-funded university innovation activities, and the lack of engagement of the strategic design profession by some universities. Universities and private industry should be complementary partners, not competitors.
03:52:49pm Jun-12th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Doris-Ann Williams It is recognised that the diagnostics market has a high prevalence of multi-national players, but it's heavily punctuated with innovative SME-size organisations making an enormous impact. Manufacturing a majority of the point-of-care diagnostics tests, these companies provide solutions that contribute heavily to the collection for necessary patient data for diagnosis. But we've found there are considerable barriers to the future development of these companies and many are struggling to compete within the home market.
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09:23:55am Jun-12th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Tim Craig There seems to be no strategy to so much government spending. Telecare is a case in point, where much spin is promoting it as a major solution to the growing cost of the aging population. Throwing £80M at Councils and call it the Preventative Technology Grant has resulted in very little preventative technology, just thousands of more panic buttons bought to soak up the budget! To make telecare work for the benefit of patients and carers, the financial and administrative regime needs to be reorganised to enable it to happen.
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04:44:47pm Jun-11th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Mick Gordon As an inventor, I believe that individuals and businesses should be incentivised to invest in small firms that are developing innovations and inventions by way of serious tax breaks. Although the cut in VAT to 15 per cent was well intentioned, it has had a negligible effect on stimulating the economy, where encouraging the flow of private investment for promising innovations could have a far greater impact. The economic crisis has negatively affected the net worth of many potential investors - thereby seriously reducing their number.
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03:37:41pm Jun-11th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Richard Snell Business support services need to be dramatically streamlined. There are many schemes at different levels which are too specific in their remit, too opaque and too prescriptive. This leads to burdensome applications procedures and hard to comprehend decisions. It also appears that too much of the money earmarked for the schemes goes on their administration rather than to help businesses.
The R&D tax credits scheme is one of the best ways to support buinesses as it is solution-agnostic and can be administrered through existing systems on both sides. More focus should be placed on this rather than further schemes to "help" industry.
12:23:09pm Jun-11th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Chris Bell There are many expressions and comments which have been posed to address many issues within the Life Sciences community.
Currently there is a free standard called BSI PAS 83 About Cell based therapies. www.bsigroup.com.
Government needs to be aware that life sciences are good value, available and meet the needs of the UK. BSI can help!!
One way of proving this is through quality standards and including government, academia, private sector and anyone who has a technical interest in developing good practice standards for your industry. BSI is the official UK national standards body and legal owner of the world famous Kitemark.
11:57:45am Jun-11th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Barry Scholes I think the issue of TAX CREDIT relief on Research and Development needs to be addressed. Currently there are two levels depending on whether the company is an SME or LARGE.However, in the small print of the HM Rev and Customs guidelines it goes on to state that sub-contracted R&D will only be eligible for the lower rate of credit, as given to large companies.
My point is that the vast majority of SMEs do not have the means to support internal R&D. Most small companies incur consultancy fees, or testing fees, clinical trials, etc. all of which are external.
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09:46:54am Jun-11th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
David Brunnen At a recent 'Leadership Summit' we tackled the challenge of how to develop the market for Connected Health systems and services with four Work-Streams on Governance, Engagement, Procurement and Implementation.

The output, 'a Manifesto for Connected Health', can be downloaded via: http://www.echcampus.com/news/events/leadership-summit.html

In a fast-evolving market, lengthy and costly procurement procsses militate against innovations from SME's and increasingly demand partnerships with larger systems integrators with capacity to survive the sales investment cycle.
02:07:23pm Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Sue Wilde The amount of time it takes to secure a tariff code for Payment By Results means the product developer is actually penalised, a shorter turnaround time for coding will reduce the risk and increase the earning potential.
02:05:20pm Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Matthew Harte As the government is looking to help life science SME's, if should look to encourage the NHS which is the largest consumer of these products to buy from British companies. From my experience, the NHS has bought solely on price and not necessarily on value or whole life costs and does not really consider where the product is supporting UK industry or not.
I also believe that the government needs to push more in new developments and innovations in this area. I accept that there has been movement in this area in the right direction but I feel
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01:02:36pm Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
3 people agree with this
Paul Morris at 01:56:19pm Jun-12th
I wholeheartedly agree with Matthew on this one. I have also been extremely frustrated by the lack of vison at the NHS and once was told by a Senior Cross Infection Director... "I will have time to look at your antimicrobial products when I have MRSA under control".....when I was offering simple cost effective solutions to do just that.
I find promoting my innovations infinately easier to the private sector where they see the advantages straightaway of cost savings through added benefits.
These added benefits would be reduced cross infections in the NHS.
Philip Weston The govnmt does not fully apreciate that the NHS is the worlds largest single customer and as such could stimulate the develpoment of British companies if working on the same lines as our European partners eg.France Spain and Germany support national companies through purchase of products - even if imported

We export 92% of production because we cannot penetrate the NHS.
12:34:31pm Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
2 people agree with this
R Jones In response to Dawn Oliver I agree with her comments on the value and issues of SMEs in healthcare and at the risk of being and NHS/University interloper in this our experience of collaborations with SMEs over many years is very positive. We would hope to encourage SMEs to drive for longer term strategies where modest but frequent DH funding rounds enable development of collaboration with faster turnaround within the NHS/ University system-such funding may grow if seen to be effective.
10:11:29am Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Dawn K Oliver I am writing on behalf of industry members of the Health Tech Hub (www.healthtechhub.co.uk) which supports firms in the Medical Sector. There is no shortage of good ideas which, if implemented, would provide cost savings to the Health Service and benefits to the end user. The difficulty is in getting these ideas assessed quickly as SMEs generally have short term plans and don't have the time or resource to wait.
09:29:27am Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Trace Wotherspoon at 02:03:24pm Jun-12th
I would agree with Dawn's comment. SME's need to realise it takes something in the order of 5 yrs in medical electronics to take a product from an idea to sale. When it comes to implanted electronics as we make this could be longer. One way to mitigate this development time is to use funding schemes such as TSB, I4I, Welcome Trust or FP7 we have found these very usful in the past and continue to use.
An NHs employee The problem businesses have satisfying the needs of the NHS is that there is an almost total absence of effective leadership and management in the service which, combined with a procurement system that doesn't meet the needs of the service, makes the real opportunities for service improvement through new technologies pretty opaque.
09:17:12am Jun-10th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Dr Richard Philpott We need a simple and efficient open innovation vehicle by which the NHS and it's supporting industry can quickly communicate problems, opportunities and other needs. The BERR (now BIS) government procurement activity does not appear to have impacted here. I have an idea for a vehicle which will help if you would like to contact me.
06:17:02pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Anita Frear Less onerous regulatory documentation when tendering. New submission documentation now includes new questions regarding accreditation to ISO 14001 or having an Environmental Management System in place,compliance with BS25999 (Best practise Business Continuity Management)and a Security Plan to comply with ISO/IEC 27001. I am also reliably informed that future tender documents will include even more questions concerning Sustainable Procurement (a huge subject in itself).When is it going to end? We are a critical supplier to the NHSBT employing 10 people. Where do we find the time to comply with all this and keep a viable business going too!
05:37:09pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Ken Rigby Embracing the internet connectivity with social interactive virtual spaces will enable lateral development of ideas and products. Innovation is derived by connecting demand with supply. A need can be solved if the requirement is clearly specified. The major problem of the future will be care of the elderly, an ICT solution is possible; but requires careful specification with standardisation and implementation to keep costs and meet user needs in line with required services.
05:26:28pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Dr Frank F Craig Most SMEs struggle in their first few years. My view is that there is a lot of duplication in the UK, national and regional business support services. The grants system has been improved but still has a way to go to make it very clear if this is a viable financing option for some companies. So, if the Govt eliminates duplication and streamlines support then that could save them more money for direct investment or additional grant support for SMEs.
03:04:10pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
David Brunnen My colleague Eoin Lambkin spoke 2 weeks ago at the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance meeting in San Diego. He came away convinced that technological innovation was not in short supply but, as with all other parts of the global Connected Health market, the scale of the opportunity is matched only by the complexity of the enterprise and healthcare eco-systems that need coordination to deliver effective large-scale deployments.

The scale and urgency of the need to transform healthcare delivery seems only to be slowly dawning on policy makers - and seems currently driven by cost (saving) issues more than quality (value) enhancement.
02:23:45pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Melvin Reynolds at 01:42:15pm Jun-10th
I agree. Healthcare is complex and is technology is enabling the joining up different skills and disciplines at an increasing rate.
The dispiriting thing is that central initiatives just keep putting in place programmes that follow, and duplicate investment in, predictable trends rather than allowing innovation.
Mary M has touched, in part, on the apparent lack of understanding that facilitation of health knowledge resources have to play as the join-up happens. These knowledge resources are key to the sorts of developments that David B and Nick H mention; and to others too. But they simply don't fit current support constraints.
Philip Needham All we want is the NHS to buy from us. Even with all boxes ticked (Govt policy, CE marked devices, field proven, saves lives, saves money, easy to use) there is no simple procurement mechanism for innovations. No-one is willing to buy anything just to see if it works (too busy with the day job? Risk averse? Afraid of making a mistake?). Progress comes from being different, not carrying on doing the same old thing. there's still no pull, only lots of SMEs (and others) pushing.
Anyway, Tony, you know where I'm coming from.
Regards, Philip
02:09:05pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
3 people agree with this
1 person disagrees with this
Andrew Ives at 08:45:05am Jun-22nd
This is probably the most pertinent comment offered to date. I find a reluctance to adopt innovations, even those which offer cost savings and patient benefit, which stifles the advances being offered by SMEs who often are unable to fund intense marketing campaigns to break down the barriers. What is needed is some form of incubator where we can prove and showcase the benefits our SMEs can offer to the NHS and other UK providers of healthcare. No one will be surprised to hear that it is much easier overseas!
Chris Bell at 11:03:05am Jun-15th
Here the pull.
http://healthcareinnovationexpo.com/
Everyone needs to go to this. NHS buyers will be there.
BSI is not a government department and is solely independant f government but it seems this community might be missing a trick.
Sue Dunkerton I am really pleased to see this initiative started by Medilink West Midlands. There is a lot happening at the moment re government seeking to help innovative UK businesses, and we need mechanisms, and innovation in communication, to ensure we can hear the industry (particularly SME) voice and feed this back to inform government decisions.
12:15:01pm Jun-09th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Satnam Bains As a company focused on systems integration, it is very difficult to get to a position where we can prove the value of a new innovation in healthcare as it is diffcult to get access to existing systems in the NHS. The powers that be should provide access to existing sytems so it is easier to prove the capability of new innovations.
10:04:33pm Jun-07th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Nick Hunn Consider disruptive approaches outside the NHS. We are entering an era of internet connected, consumer medical devices which will allow disruptive developments. They may come from open source, patient groups or medical sources and are likely to happen faster than the current pace of medical device development. They could lead to rapid large scale deployment, rather than the small scale trials which have bedevilled so much of recent funding. What SMEs need to participate in this new market is support for wider systems innovation, rather than the current concentration on pure technology or NHS coupled projects.
11:29:50pm Jun-05th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
David Bradley Talking to people at various 'networking' events there is a common theme that to deal with the NHS is 'difficult'. Medilink assists greatly to break down barriers but I do feel that there ought to be a route map to take ideas forward built on lean principles and tools such as value stream mapping etc.
08:22:10am Jun-05th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Chris Dyke Government should insist on a fixed price scheme by NHS and academia for clinical trials and evaluations, or at the very least a discount on the full overhead costs attributed to the process which make it unrealistic for SMEs to afford.
03:22:23pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
2 people agree with this
Mark Howitt Britain supports many major international scientific programmes, but they are all located abroad (e.g. ITER in France, CERN in Switzerland, Hubble in Germany), which greatly benefits suppliers of the countries in which they are located. We need to ensure that more such programmes are located and managed in the UK.
03:18:56pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
3 people agree with this
Mark Howitt We used to have a world-leading medical devices industry incorporating research, development and manufacturing. There is still some research but little development and less manufacturing. The government, with the NHS, should establish a list of target devices to be developed & manufactured, and support UK companies developing listed products with ESRC funding, partly repayable if manufactured elsewhere within 5 years of approval AND marketing.
03:15:59pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
4 people agree with this
1 person disagrees with this
Chris Bell at 03:37:19pm Jun-11th
We still have a strong medical device manufacturing sector in the UK. The NHS has a department called NHS Innovation which is leading this very idea. BSI is helping to ensure that standards make their products attractive to purchasers by ensuring they are safe and the companies are quality system compliant.
Mark Turner at 03:45:33pm Jun-09th
Succinctly put and absolutely right.
Mary Matthews The current R&D tax credit system is not well purposed for knowledge industries, where iteration may be a constant process and not always locked down into a final defined product. This should be urgently reviewed...
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12:59:18pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Dr Mark Payton We are an investor in young start up technology businesses and we have partnerships with MidTech and 8 of the regional universities in the West Midlands. Our investment focus is the West Midlands (www.merciafund.co.uk). About a third of our investments are in the life science sector (by this I mean biotech, pharma, diagnostics and medical devices). We typically invest £0.5m, but can invest up to £1m per company...
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12:45:56pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Tim Jones Our number one stumbling block is credit insurance: In order to keep our cash flowing we use a system common to many SME's of invoice discounting; each invoice or sale we make, the bank gives us the full amount in cash, on the nail. They then wait the 30 or 60 days until our customer pays up. Obviously the banks make a charge for the service, but it means we always have cash to pay our people, and suppliers on time...
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12:33:36pm Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Alastair Gibbs With the current credit crisis and the massive publicly funded bank rescues, it is easy to see why, recently, many people have begun venting envy and anger at chief executives and all those who earn excess of a £150,000. Indeed, going so far as equating them to the minority of failed bankers and city traders who helped trigger the crises, in an attempt to denigrate objections to the proposed 50p income-tax threshold...
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10:32:48am Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
1 person agrees with this
Ian Williams Allow easy access to medical device experts, such as CE marking. Thus allowing companies to use clever new technologies and apply it todays medical device industry. By pooling our talent innovation can be rapidly accelerated allowing faster return on the concept which supports innovation.
09:50:27am Jun-04th   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Philip Needham at 04:01:14pm Jun-09th
That's what we've done, but still the NHS doesn't buy, it is a lack of pull from the "market"; there;s no lack of innovative talent with regulatory experience etc
Graham Green Many of the components of the life sciences revolution are well established - i-Health is evidence of this. But it's not just a scientific revolution - it will depend on a social revolution - changing the behaviour of carers, liberating patients, relieving burdens on the NHS etc.

This won't happen just by entrepreneurs 'pushing' - it will depend on 'pull-through' by PCTs, GPs and the public. The govt must brief and motivate PCTs and GPs!
02:52:57pm Jun-02nd   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
3 people agree with this
Peter Dines A clear pathway for generation of medical IP - the current NHS situation is vague for my part not fully understood and needs resolution as most good idea's come from hospital employee's. If a pathway of all expert providers from proof of concept, design, testing, IP advice (covering international)was mapped out it would be easy from my point of view to layer on strategic business prinicples on top of this at a suitable stage. Funding each stage
04:37:30pm Jun-01st   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
Michelle Dalton
Voices Of Industry Campaign Launches

For the next thirty days, West Midlands life sciences SMEs have an unprecedented opportunity to tell the Government what it can do to help them succeed, as medical and healthcare industry specialist MedilinkWM launches the Voices of Industry Campaign.
Click here for more
07:09:43am Jun-01st   Agree/Disagree     Comment  
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Peter haine at 05:31:18pm Jun-03rd
Resign now and make way for fresh blood with new ideas free of the baggage that this awful government continues to carry with it. There is no other solution!

Videos

Tony Davis
 Voices of Industry: Proposal Sent
- 1 July 2009
- Tony Davis,CEO MedilinkWM
Tony Davis
 Voices of Industry: Update
- 15 June 2009
- Tony Davis,CEO MedilinkWM
Tony Davis
 Voices of Industry: Why Is It Important?
- 1 June 2009
- Tony Davis,CEO MedilinkWM

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