Meeting with the Public Hospital Administration of Zhuhai on Guidelines for Procurement of Medical Devices

2016-11-18 | Beijing, South China

A Delegation of the Healthcare Equipment Working Group of the Chamber hold a Meeting with Dr Mei Wenhua and other officers of the Public Hospital Administration of Zhuhai on Guidelines for Procurement of Disposable Medical Devices and IVD.

Zhuhai is a trial city for the healthcare reform, i.e. Zhuhai can work out its own guidelines on procurement of medical devices.

V. Müller introduced the European Chamber and its Healthcare Equipment Working Group and presented a copy of the Chamber's new Position Paper 2016/17 to Dr. Mei.

Dr. Mei introduced the background of Zhuhai's approach to the reform of the procurement system. While ex-factory prices of most medical devices and IVD are reasonably low, the mark-up in the supply-chain and subsequent purchasing prices of the hospitals are unacceptably high. Different from other cities and provinces, Zhuhai tries to regulate the market by starting to limit the number of hospital-suppliers to a few reliable ones. The Zhuhai city government has approved this approach.

During the following discussion, industry representatives pointed to possible negative effects of the reform, e.g. lack of know-how of distributor to carry out training and after-sales service. At this meetings, constructive proposals were worked out how to overcome these shortcommings. The Zhuhai Hospital administration and the Chamber agreed to continue the dialogue to achieve an optimal solution for all stakeholders involved.