The term medical device includes all products, except medicines, used in healthcare for the diagnosis, prevention, monitoring or treatment of illness or disability.
The range of products is very wide: it includes dressings, tubing, syringes, infusion pumps, heart valves, surgical instruments, resuscitators, radiotherapy machines, wheelchairs, walking frames or other assistive technology products.
Incident reports about defective medical devices should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Patient safety incidents concerning the use of medical devices should be reported to the National Reporting and Learning Service.
