Medtech Canada’s (the national association representing the medical technology industry) report on addressing the global supply chain and shipping crisis to ensure the continuity of care for our Canadian patients is an informative piece of work.
The medical technology industry has been at center stage in Canada over the last 2.5 years due to COVID 19, with unprecedented demand for medical technologies such as personal protective equipment (PPE), diagnostic tests and ventilators. TODAY, healthcare systems across the country are looking to address the significant-and growing- issue of medical supplies backlogs and other delays in much needed patient care.
Global supply chain issues have affected all sort of devices and supplies. The COVID-19 pandemic and other global events such as the war in Ukraine have resulted in increased cost of fuel and raw materials. These and other factors such as global staffing shortages continue to drive up prices.
Consumers are aware of the increases in food prices and have seen the challenges associated with buying new cars and electronics, but less noticed have been the consequences for the manufacturers and suppliers of medical devices and supplies.
According to the C.D. Howe Institute, (an independent not-for-profit research institute whose mission is to raise living standards by fostering economically sound public policies) prices for plastics and resin, which are critical components of broadly used medical supplies including needles and syringes have doubled, transportation costs have tripled and the prices of other raw materials such as metal have increased by more than 30 percent. The result is skyrocketing costs to produce and supply medical devices, ranging from IV bags and gauze, to stents, hip and knee replacements and pacemakers.
With the health system backlog resulting from the pandemic, Canadian patients have suffered enough from long wait times and limited access to the critical medical services they need. Medical devices and supplies are critically important to providing the quality of care we rightly expect in Canada.
MHCare Medical holds a medical device establishment license and is ISO 13485:2016 certified. We are a medical device supply company providing health solutions across many sectors. We pride ourselves as being one of the largest and trusted medical protective equipment suppliers in North America with global supply chain efficiencies. Our mission is to keep front-line workers and communities safe; we give generously to the communities in which we operate, working closely with non-profit organizations.
Learn more at mhcaremedical.com. Follow @MHCareMed and our hashtag #CaringForCommunities on social media.
*This article is not meant to be taken as medical advice. Please follow the advice of your local health authorities when making decisions about your own health and the people around you.
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