15 July 2024

NHS Supply Chain and the Global Medical Device Nomenclature (GMDN) Agency have announced a new collaboration.

The new relationship means NHS Supply Chain will benefit from full access to the GMDN Database and dataset.

The GMDN is a requirement when registering medical devices with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) so they can be lawfully placed on the UK market, and NHS Supply Chain are using the GMDN to ensure that the products they transact are compliant.

Speaking about the partnership, Deniz Bruce, CEO of the GMDN Agency said:

“I’m really pleased to announce our new collaboration with NHS Supply Chain. As a UK based charity and non-profit organisation it is great to be working with our home healthcare providers. With full access to the GMDN, NHS Supply Chain now has use of the most accurate and up to date nomenclature system for medical devices.”

The GMDN is designed to be flexible and adaptable to accommodate new and emerging technologies, and it is continually updated to reflect changes in the medical device landscape. The system is used by Regulators in over 90 countries worldwide and has members in 145 countries across the globe.

Wendy Chamberlain, Regulatory Compliance Lead at NHS Supply Chain, said:

“The GMDN is a critical component in the global regulatory infrastructure for medical devices including here in the UK. We will be using the GMDN to ensure our product transactions are compliant and we are also using the GMDN to assist with resilience issues in attempts to find alternative products working within our public tendering regulations.”

GMDN provides healthcare professionals, regulators, manufacturers and others with a common language to communicate and share information and is the leading nomenclature for medical devices worldwide, providing a single common language that facilitates regulatory compliance, quality control, and patient safety.

It is hoped that in the future this will allow the NHS Supply Chain to embed the GMDN into its own software to improve and support medical device supply chain management, asset and inventory management, procurement and tender process management and analysis.

About NHS Supply Chain

NHS Supply Chain is part of the NHS family and manage the sourcing, delivery and supply of healthcare products, services and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales.

We manage more than 8 million orders per year across more than 129,000 order points and over 16,000 locations. We deliver over 35 million lines of picked goods to the NHS annually and our systems consolidate orders from over 1100 suppliers. This enables us to bring value to our NHS partners, helping them save time and money in removing duplication of overlapping contracts.

NHS Supply Chain aims to leverage the collective buying power of the NHS to drive savings and provide a standardised range of clinically assured, quality products at the best value.

NHS Supply Chain is committed to enabling the NHS to deliver safe and excellent patient care.

Supply Chain Coordination Ltd (SCCL) is the company at the heart of NHS Supply Chain. It provides oversight and operational management for NHS Supply Chain and its service providers. 

SCCL is the legal entity through which NHS Supply Chain undertakes its procurement services and transacts with customers and suppliers.

Whilst its shares are owned by NHS England, SCCL is a separate organisation.