ABSTRACT
A small British company formed nineteen years ago to manufacture coronary and intensive care monitoring equipment, defibrillators, pacemakers, electro-cardiac life support systems and incontinence aids. The company has just developed a portable monitor and defibrillator which is now on sale to the NHS. The Scientific and Technical Branch of DHSS took about a year to complete their evaluation, but the company had begun to sell to the NHS before the evaluation was complete. The company has noticed a gradual increase in paperwork in the last three or four years attached to selling equipment to the NHS. However, there has also been a marked improvement in payments made by hospitals for goods received. A salesman for the company has noticed an increase in the number of NHS staff sitting in on pre-tender negotiations in hospitals. The company has its own delivery service. One delivery van servies the south of England and salesmen deliver over other parts of the country.
