Medical device

Ljubljana – Doctors from a group termed zdravstvo.si have left a Health Ministry task force in charge of changing public procurement procedures in healthcare because their proposal to eliminate price anomalies in procurement of medical devices has not been welcomed. They also oppose fees that would have to be paid to the national medical agency.

Those tests, as she explained, did not receive approval from Medicines and Medical Devices Agency of Serbia. "It was discussed at the Crisis Staff and the Ministry of Health checked, those tests were not approved by the Medicines and Medical Devices Agency", Brnabi said on the show "Hit Tweet".

Seeking to stem the hundreds of millions of dollars it costs annually to buy medical devices from abroad, Turkey has stepped up its efforts to develop and produce these devices within the country instead.

Expenses for importing medical devices such as respirators or X-ray systems reached more than $8 billion in the last five years, while there has also been a gradual decline.

The European Commission will temporarily waive duties and VAT on imports of essential medical equipment to help fight the coronavirus.

"This will make it easier financially to get the medical equipment that doctors, nurses and patients desperately need.

The Commission has swiftly approved requests received from all Member States.

"We have adopted new rules to allow faster and less expensive conformity assessment procedure for medical equipment and products. The new rules also apply to products which are instrumental in tackling the coronavirus crisis," the European Commission announced in a tweet.

Acting Health Minister Victor Costache said on Thursday evening that he issued the order to suspend the export of medicines for a period of six months, hereby stopping at the border "countless" trucks with "tens of tonnes" of medicines and sanitary materials.

A talented 11-year-old boy shocked security experts when he hacked into their Bluetooth devices to control his robotic teddy bear during a cybersecurity conference at the World Forum in The Hague on May 16.