Used pacemakers to be banned

Imports of heart pacemakers from corpses for use in New Zealand will be banned if an expected law change to regulate medical equipment is adopted.

Health Ministry spokesman Stewart Jessamine said the ministry was approached last year by an American company, which was investigating importing heart pacemakers recovered from dead people for reuse in New Zealand.

A loophole in the law meant the ministry was powerless to stop the plan.



"However, we discouraged it and advised them the ministry would not support it," Dr Jessamine said.

"We have reason to believe that it is not happening, but without new legislation we cannot categorically state that [such] products have not entered the market.

"Because of the defects in legislation, we are proposing new laws to give us control over the medical devices entering the New Zealand market."

Unlike medicines, medical equipment - from bandages to pacemakers - can be marketed in New Zealand without approval.

"At the moment, we have a voluntary system where people ask the ministry's opinion on new devices for the market," Dr Jessamine said.

"If they choose to ignore the opinion, the law allows us to recall the product if we have reason to believe it is dangerous.

"But it doesn't give us any powers to control the product entering the market in the first place."

Even the Medical Industry Association, which represents 120 companies supplying medical equipment, is concerned at the legal loophole.

Its chief executive, Faye Sumner, backed a law change, particularly because of an increase on the market of medical devices containing human tissue.

At present, these devices could be imported and sold without checks on any tissue's origin and without screening for diseases, she said.

- NZPA

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