The Medical Technology Group (MTG) is a not for profit organisation in the United Kingdom comprising patient groups, research charities and medical device manufacturers. Its stated aim is to "work together to improve patient access to effective medical technologies". The Group launched in 2001.
Membership
Current members of the MTG are:
Research
Commission on NHS Culture
The MTG launched its Commission on NHS Culture in 2025. The commission's aim is to identify the system-wide behaviours and structures that support or hinder transformation and improvement as the NHS undergoes major reform.
Accountability
The first report published by the MTG's Commission "Rebuilding Accountability in a Changing NHS: A Review of ICB Leadership, Innovation and Patient Outcomes" examined where accountability is working well, and where it still needs to be strengthened. It was published in December 2025.
Best Practice
The second report "A System that Learns: Embedding best practice across the NHS" investigated how organisational culture affects the adoption of innovation, the use of data, and the delivery of services. It focused on Best Practice and how effective models and technologies are identified, measured, and shared across the health system for the benefit of patients and those who work in the NHS. Published in December 2025.
Measuring Value
The third report in the NHS Culture series "Measuring Value in NHS Procurement of Health Technologies: From Cost Containment to Accountable, Outcomes-driven adoption", published in July 2026, found that NHS procurement remains focused on short-term cost rather than the impact a technology can have on a patient’s life, and that this mismatch, not clinical disagreement, is the main driver of the ongoing postcode lottery in access to medical technology across England.
Integrated Care System performance
The performance of Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and how they have impacted regional variation in NHS performance was the subject of a report by the MTG in April 2024: Levelling Up or Levelling Down: The Impact of Integrated Care Systems on the Delivery of Care found that areas of high and low performance had remained consistent over a two-year period. It found that some of England's highest and lowest performing hospitals are now found in the same ICS. The report called for NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to implement measures to ensure that the medical technology, innovations and leadership methods that have contributed to the achievements of the highest performing regions are implemented across the NHS and within the ICSs to help end regional variation.
Elective Backlog
In November 2023, the Medical Technology Group called for a full review into Community Diagnostic Centres and Surgical Hubs in its second report into the elective care backlog. Following an investigation revealing regional variation in best practice sharing and performance reviews, chair of the MTG Barbara Harpham expressed concern that some patients could be missing out on the latest medical technology.
Meaningful Patient Involvement
The MTG published a report, Delivering Meaningful Patient Involvement, in September 2023 that revealed widespread variation in the instance and quality of meaningful patient involvement across the 42 Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) of NHS England. Research into the structures, policies and processes of the country's 42 Integrated Care Systems found that, while there are examples of best practice, 40 percent of them had no formal patient involvement in Board meetings and subcommittees. The report also revealed the postcode lottery for patient involvement, with the worst provision in the Midlands and the South, with the Northeast leading the way in integrating patient insight into decision making.
Barriers to adoption of innovation
In August 2023, the Medical Technology Group published a report examining the barriers to the uptake of innovation by the NHS, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Variation in regional performance
In September 2022, the Medical Technology Group published a report on patient referral data from NHS England for all completed pathways, as well as specialised treatment areas including general surgery, cardiology and orthopaedics. The report revealed the best performing regions in England, with some hospitals in the southwest and northeast treating up to three times as many patients as those in London and the Midlands, and shared examples of best practice. The Health Service Journal published an article in October 2022 by Chair of the MTG, Barbara Harpham, which examined the need for organisations to share best practices in order to improve care within the NHS.
The impact of medical technology
In November 2021, the Medical Technology Group published its Medtech the Solution manifesto to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of the MTG's formation in 2001. The report highlights the achievements in medical technology in the past two decades and includes contributions from Rachel Power, CEO of the Patients Association, Dean Russell MP, and health innovation policy expert, Paul Blakeley. It calls for better access to medical technology to reduce pressure, clinician time, and costly interventions in the NHS, and recommends: Prioritisation of the patient voice, including consulting patients on decisions around commissioning and funding, and offering them all the diagnosis and treatment decisions available so they can make an informed choice. Accelerated access for patients to medical technology, so that any technology recommended by NICE is taken up at pace and scale across the country, with Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) implementing and being accountable for uptake. Fair and timely commissioning, where commissioning decisions by NHS England and proven, recommended technologies are linked to funding, wider societal value is included in NICE decisions, and long-term decision making that improves health outcomes is rewarded.
Regional variation in NHS treatment rates
In September 2021, the Medical Technology Group released analysis of NHS England data, called Ration Watch UK, that revealed huge regional variation in the number of patients receiving NHS treatment in England. It found that Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in the North performed significantly better than those in the South. The number of patients receiving NHS treatment in June 2021 ranged from 2.52 per 1,000 population in Wirral CCG to 8.77 per 1,000 population in Wakefield CCG, over three times higher. The best performing region was the Northeast which treated 5.37 patients per 1,000 population, compared to 3.38 in London and 4.14 in the East.
Medical Technology Access Accelerator
In March 2021, the Medical Technology Group published its Medical Technology Access Accelerator report, reviewing the current NHS infrastructure for introducing medical technologies and setting out eleven recommendations to improve the systematic uptake and spread of innovation. Among its recommendations, the report emphasises the need for a single pathway to support innovators to effectively navigate the system, guaranteed funding and commissioning, as well as the importance of including patients in decisions around a technology's adoption.
The report was published during the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking on the report, MTG Chair Barbara Harpham said “The benefits of medical technology for patients have been clear during the COVID-19 pandemic […] if we are going to take advantage of new technology to enable the health service to recover and become more efficient in the future, we need a simple, clear mechanism for adopting new treatments”.
Innovation adoption in the NHS
In its report Our NHS: A Spotlight on the Innovation Landscape, published in January 2020, the MTG assessed the mechanisms for innovation and technology within the NHS, and whether they foster an environment that delivers timely treatments to patients and takes full advantage of the health technology on offer. The report evaluated the key innovation organisations, based on factors such as how they perform, interact and operate with one another and considered the changes that have taken place since the 2016 Déjà Review report, assessing whether the development of the Accelerated Access Review took the recommendations made in this report into account and avoided previous mistakes.
CCG treatment rationing
Over half of clinical commissioning groups restrict access to cataract surgery, research by the Medical Technology Group into CCGs' lists of 'Procedures of Limited Clinical Value' in October 2018 revealed. Other findings were that almost half of CCGs limit access to hernia repair and many take a 'watchful waiting' approach, which can increase emergency cases and lead to worse patient outcomes. In addition, 78 CCGs restrict hip and knee replacement, despite the surgery being proven to be effective in keeping people mobile since over half a century. A further 12 CCGs refuse to provide patients with continuous glucose monitoring, while seven only provide it with an individual funding request. The Royal National Institute for Blind People (RNIB) described the findings as "shocking", while the Royal College of Surgeons said that "It is wrong for commissioning groups to label operations for hip and knee replacements, and hernia surgery, as of limited value – thereby delaying or denying surgery to patients in pain." In 2019 the Medical Technology Group launched a campaign 'Ration Watch' calling for a national body to scrutinise decisions by individual CCGs and ensure patient access to treatments is consistent across the country.
STPs and the use of technology
Nine out of ten regional NHS plans are failing to pay enough attention to the role of medical technology, a report by the Medical Technology Group report found in November 2018. All 44 regional STP plans were analysed in the report STPs and the use of technology, which concluded that the NHS is risking missing out on the opportunity to benefit from the use of innovative medical technology. Seven recommendations for ensuring healthcare systems assess, procure, commission and deliver technology-based treatments effectively are set out in the report. Writing on the BMA website, MTG Chair Barbara Harpham said: "Until it puts an end to its perverse incentives, the NHS will never truly embrace technology and realise its benefits."
Keeping Britain Working: How medical technology can help reduce the cost of ill health to the UK economy
In November 2017, The Medical Technology Group launched its second major study, Keeping Britain Working – How medical technology can help reduce the cost of ill health to the UK economy. Building on the Work Foundation's 2011 study, the report explores the societal and economic impact of eight technologies: hip replacements; implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs); insulin pumps; diagnostics, including sepsis; fibroid embolisation; pain management; wound care; and coronary angioplasty. The report concluded that £476 million in savings per year could be generated from the use of eight technologies in reduced long-term health costs and benefit payments.
The North-South NHS divide: how where you are – not what you need – dictates your care