Last Updated on 28/05/2024 by Sarah Sarsby
The British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) recently hosted another successful conference that brought together healthcare leaders and suppliers to discuss how the changes made today will impact the future of the health service.
The sellout BHTA Conference 2024, ‘Health Tech in the UK: The next 5 years’, took place at the Northampton Town Centre Hotel on 21 May and was sponsored by Verlingue.
Boasting an impressive roster of key government and NHS speakers, engaging presentations throughout the day included topics on the MedTech Strategy one year on, the Procurement Act 2023, late-stage medical device assessments, practical export support for UK SMEs, UK medical device regulation changes, and much more.
Attendees had the chance to ask the speakers important questions during two Q&A panel discussions throughout the day.
The conference kicked off with a welcome from BHTA CEO David Stockdale, who highlighted some of the BHTA’s successful campaigns, how the BHTA lobbies to government to ensure its members’ voices are heard, and an overview of the BHTA Conference 2024.
Next, Lord Markham, Parliamentary Under-Secretary from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), shared his opening remarks. Lord Markham outlined that the UK has massive potential to transform the medtech landscape over the next five years and highlighted relevant and successful government initiatives like Innovative Devices Access Pathway (IDAP), the MedTech Strategy, and late-stage medtech assessments.
David Lawson, Director of MedTech for DHSC, delivered a presentation titled ‘Value Not Cost’. He discussed the ‘The medical technology strategy: one year on’ report, the issues DHSC is trying to solve when it comes to the medtech sector, and value-based procurement.
Fiona Hilton, Director of Commercial Best Practice & Engagement for NHS England, discussed the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial. Her presentation delved into how the Procurement Act 2023 will significantly change how the NHS works with suppliers and the Strategic Framework for NHS Commercial.
Andrew New, CEO of NHS Supply Chain, presented ‘One Year On – More to Come’. He talked about how NHS Supply Chain will change over the next five years to make it better to work with, and how it aims to enable an optimised, resilient, and sustainable supply chain.
Mark Chapman, Interim Director Medical Technology Digital & Diagnostics at NICE, commenced the afternoon presentations. His presentation was titled ‘NICE HealthTech Assessment: Focus on What Matters Most’. Mark explained the NICE HealthTech Assessment lifecycle approach and late-stage medical device assessments.
Barney Willis, Deputy Head of Life Sciences for the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), explained how DBT provides practical support to UK medtech SMEs with exporting. Barney provided an insight into how DBT promotes innovative UK medtech companies in key global export markets.
Before the closing remarks, Laura Squire, Chief Healthcare Quality & Access Officer at Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), delivered the final BHTA Conference 2024 presentation. Her talk, ‘How Regulation of Medical Devices in the UK is Changing’ explored where UK medical device regulation is at now and what the future looks like, alongside international recognition of medical devices.
Positive feedback from the day included:
“An excellent set of speakers and some thought-provoking questions. Given the make-up of BHTA membership, it was good to see several references to the importance of SME business from the speakers.”
“A very good event with really good Q&A sessions. The speakers and the topics they covered should have been of real value to members. I always go looking for 3 or 4 golden nuggets at a day like this, and there were several.”
“It was a really informative day, great speakers, content, location, room, and lunch.”
“It was obvious from how well it went that a lot of work has gone into it, so I hope all the team involved are justifiably proud of the day.”