ICW, ABHI and BSI have issued a joint call to Ministers at the Department of Health and Social Security to engage with industry in building collaboration that will support the supply chain for the NHS. In a letter to Edward Argar MP, the Minister of State for Health, the 3 chief executives - Claire Ward (ICW), Susan Taylor Martin (BSI) and Peter Ellingworth (ABHI) - set out how the organisations had recently worked together on a webinar to promote collaborative working in the health sector and had looked to other parts of the public sector for good practice, notably the MoD. They referenced the increasing focus upon collaboration and collaborative working by the government: "DHSC have stressed the importance of collaboration in the forthcoming Health and Social Care bill, requiring NHS organisations and other parts of public service to collaborate at system level and as local providers. We also note that the recently published Life Sciences Vision has collaboration between the NHS and industry writ large throughout, and that the new MedTech Directorate in your Department is developing its work programme and building its relationship with suppliers."

They have called on Ministers and officials to meet jointly with the organisations to discuss examples of good collaborative working practice, such as the recently published MoD and TechUK code of practice, which could form a blueprint for the health sector and provide significant benefit to the "NHS, the vibrant UK HealthTech sector and the patients we serve."