To set up special funds for medical devices and technologies at the scale-up stage

In order to foster the relationship between the supply of Catalan SMEs and the demand of hospitals – particularly in the fields of research, innovation and digital and technological solutions – hospitals must benefit from special funds to invest and meet their needs using products, technology and devices at the scale-up stage which have been made in Catalonia. At present, almost all the technology present in our hospitals comes from outside Catalonia, and there is a need to create joint streams of work between hospitals and Catalan companies to speed up the approval of new technologies and obtain a return for the public health system from approved technologies. If we take this crisis as an example, not all solutions developed here have found a swift channel in order to be approved and adopted by the health system. This disconnect may create an unfavourable cost/opportunity ratio for the health system and for industry alike. Our recommendation is to carry out the following: to provide support to and expand the capacities of public and private laboratories that are already approved and accredited; to identify the need for new accredited laboratories, promoting their establishment; to encourage individual laboratories or organisations to be certified as a notified body; and to extend the channels of innovative public purchasing as one of the primary pathways to procurement.