Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with his counterpart in the Scottish Government on the lessons learned from the implementation of Scan4Safety in Scotland.

The NHS Mandate 2023 sets out the requirement for the National Health Service to adopt digital scanning. By March 2024, all trusts should adopt barcode scanning of high-risk medical devices and submission to the national, mandatory Medical Device Outcome Registry (MDOR) either directly or via a supporting electronic health record (EHR) or inventory management system that can support registry data submission. The registry will be used to improve patient safety and outcomes in procedures that use high risk medical devices.

MDOR has native barcode scanning, including Unique Device Identifier (UDI) barcodes, so will result in the whole of England having an available UDI scanning solution without having to implement a separate system. The registry was launched in May 2023 and will accept bulk uploads from existing providers’ solutions, including Scan4Safety, that meet the data quality and completeness requirements. The Outcomes and Registries programme will support provider adoption of digital solutions that enable medical device traceability on the electronic patient record.

The Secretary of State has exchanged letters with the Scottish Government setting out the UK Government’s commitment to delivering the recommendation of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review and on the approach for MDOR. The intention is that each Devolved Administration has the option to ‘opt in’ to existing or future technical registry developments in MDOR, building on the different data programmes and local approaches to traceability and patient outcome monitoring being taken at Devolved Administration levels.