The Olympus PLASMA system – a technology recommended by NICE for treating men with enlarged prostates – is one of seven medical devices and technologies included in the 2022/23 MedTech Funding Mandate policy.

The PLASMA system has been shown to save the NHS up to £534.34 for each person treated, which could increase to £847.91 where a patient goes home the same day.

Launched in April 2021, the MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) policy supports the adoption of medtech and diagnostic technologies across almost 200 healthcare services. This fulfilled a commitment in the NHS Long Term Plan to support commissioners and healthcare providers to bring life-changing innovations to patients quicker. All the products selected enable high quality outcomes from treatment and depend on fewer resources, reducing theatre time and length of stay, so that more patients across England can be treated quicker.

According to NICE resource impact assessments, the potential savings from its support of four technologies in 2021/22 are expected to be £25 million per year, compared to the cost of more traditional methodologies. In its second year, effective from 1 April 2022, the MTFM policy is being expanded to include seven further technologies, across a variety of clinical conditions, with potential savings of £44 million.

Joshua Hicks, health economics & market access manager at Olympus, said: “It is incredible to see PLASMA included amongst the innovative medical devices and technologies featured within year two of the MTFM policy. We are really excited to be working in partnership with NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Academic Health Science Networks, to help support the aims of the policy and fundamentally accelerate equitable patient access to medical technologies that are clinically effective, cost saving in three years and affordable to the NHS.”