The attached article comes from Finance Newspaper in Slovenia. It has been translated and can be found in its original form at http://www.finance.si/8812667/Za-bolni%C5%A1nice-dva-milijona-prihranka—%C4%8De-se-bo-kdo-zganil.
Tone Lovšin, Trokar company: The longer the state of reprocessing remains vague in the EU – as well as in our country, the longer Europe market will remain an Eldorado for manufacturers
As it turned out, none of the persons we interviewed is actually against well regulated reprocessing of certain medical devices, on the contrary, they support the idea, but nobody is willing to take the first necessary step.
It is not forbidden, but…
Do we just wait for the legislation at EU level, which has already been negotiated for some years now, and the negotiations will probably continue for another few years, even if the state could regulate this field by itself? The Ministry of Health has now promised to act. Legislation in Slovenia does not mention the reprocessing of single use medical device. So it does not prohibit it explicitly, but however, it is not explicitly allowed, nor regulated. And until it is not regulated, all Slovenian hospitals decide against it, and potential savings are lost.