Question reference: S6W-25607
- Asked by: Dr. Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 19 February 2024 Registered interest
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Current status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what cost (a) savings and (b) avoidance it has identified since the implementation of Scan4Safety in Scotland.
Answer
The NHSScotland Scan For Safety Programme was established to provide rapid electronic traceability for high-risk implantable medical devices; linking patients to the medical devices used in their care, thus improving patient safety and fulfilling a key theme from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review and a future regulatory requirement. In addition, the improved medical device data will provide a patient implant record and with appropriate safeguards provide an opportunity to improve our knowledge of real world medical device outcomes.
Implementation of NHS Scotland Scan for Safety has now been successfully completed in four specialties within two Health Boards and the Programme Team is currently engaging with the local Board teams to measure the benefits being realised in these Health Board areas. The benefits to be realised over time will cover areas such as patient safety, operational efficiency and clinical productivity. While the level of each benefit will depend on the Health Board implementing scanning technology across all affected specialties within a Board area, the Programme Team will work closely with each Board to ensure the identified benefits are maximised as much as possible between now and programme closure in March 2026.
Since the rollout of the National Inventory Management System (IMS)(a pre-cursor in supporting rollout of the Scan for Safety Programme), across all Health Boards in March 2023, data is now available across all Health Boards which suggests savings may be made regarding stock management in each Board area. This data will be validated with each Health Board as part of the Scan for Safety Programme implementation activity, due to be completed by March 2026. The level of savings (or avoidance) will vary in each Board. These benefits will be aggregated at a national level in due course and reported through to the National Programme Board as implementation progresses. Some benefits, such as the digital tracking of medical devices in the event of a recall, can only be realised and verified if a recall notice is received and this may not happen during the lifecycle of the programme.