European hospitals overcharged 700 per cent on supplies

NEWS Hospitals across Europe are being charged up to eight times too much for certain supplies due to the absence of a common marketplace. That's according to Stefan Muennighoff, co-founder of GloMedix, a business-to-business trading site for medical products. Muennighoff said: "One hospital could pay between 600 and 700 per cent more for the same item another hospital purchased." He said the reason is that people use catalogues to purchase goods and there is no common platform in place to share information on new and existing products. The GloMedix site provides a trading platform connecting hospitals with buyers on a centralised system. Users, such as hospitals, physicians and rehabilitation clinics, can contact suppliers across Europe to get the best deal while also finding out information on what's happening in their sector.