NHS Budgets are under pressure. The request for Trusts to cut costs by 1%1 is increasing the strain, yet NHS theatres continue to use costly legacy products. These traditional solutions are costing NHS management thousands of pounds more than they need to be spending. Cutanplast, the gelatin sponge haemostat, can help achieve savings whilst maintaining high standards, with clinically proven results. Here’s how your theatre department can start cutting costs without compromising.
The High Cost of Legacy Theatre Consumables
The UK government is requesting NHS trusts reduce their spend by 1% which equates to £8.4milion per Trust in an attempt to tackle the £7billion annual shortfall1. NHS theatres can contribute to this reduction by reviewing their consumables and highlighting potential overspending on premium label products that aren’t improving clinical performance.
Surgical teams need reliable, dependable haemostats to control unwanted bleeding during procedures. However, operating theatres across the UK remain tied to premium-brand legacy products that come with a high price tag. One of the most commonly used gelatin sponge haemostats in the UK is one of these legacy products, and although it is effective, budgets are being wasted without seeing superior clinical performance.
Savings Without Lowering Clinical Performance
One product that operating theatres are replacing their legacy premium products with is Cutanplast, a gelatin sponge haemostat manufactured by Mascia Brunelli in Italy. The Cutanplast haemostats have been available on the UK market for over 10 years, but as the requirement for financial savings becomes more critical, so has the popularity of the product. The Cutanplast range has been used in tens of thousands of procedures in the UK and has been clinically validated across multiple studies. Cutanplast has been a reliable tool for surgeons, but what makes it a quality haemostat:
- Proven Clinical Efficacy: Fast Haemostasis and absorbs up to 50x its weight in blood
- Highly Biocompatible: Absorbed by the body with a dissolution rate of 3-4 weeks
- Available in Multiple Formats: Cutanplast is available in 10 formats to suit a range of surgical disciplines
- NHS Approved: Cutanplast is available on the NHS Supply Chain Wound Closure Framework
Cutanplast has gained clinical support in a wide range of surgical disciplines, but particularly in the areas of General Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, ENT Surgery, Spinal Surgery, Colorectal Surgery and Neurosurgery. But how does it compare to the competition? Cutanplast was directly compared to Spongostan by Ethicon, in a study analysing the use of the haemostats as a nasal packing after endoscopic sinus surgery2; the results:
| Feature | Results | Superior Haemostat |
|---|---|---|
| Haemostatic properties | Cutanplast and Spongostan are equally effective in the control of postoperative bleeding | Draw |
| Degree of remaining amount of packing materials (Absorption) | The remaining amount of the pack was significantly lower in the Cutanplast than Spongostan packing | Cutanplast |
| Patient comfort while in situ | Cutanplast packing was significantly more comfortable than Spongostan | Cutanplast |
| Postoperative wound healing | Spongostan packing appeared to impair wound healing within the sinus cavity, this observation wasn’t reported with Cutanplast | Cutanplast |
| Cost of the pack | Cutanplast was less expensive than the Spongostan used in the study | Cutanplast |
| Overall clinical paper decision | “Cutanplast may be more useful gelatin-based packing material than Sponostan in terms of efficacy and cost-benefit” | Cutanplast |
Source: Comparative analysis of Cutanplast and Spongostan nasal packing after endoscopic sinus surgery: a prospective, randomized, multicenter study2
Real World Savings in the Thousands
Cutanplast is a high-quality product; the results from the clinical papers demonstrate this. The product not only matches the quality of the market leader but surpasses it. Cutanplast isn’t just improving clinical outcomes, but also making real-world savings, with cost benefits that aren’t difficult to understand value-based propositions; they are like-for-like, unit-based savings.
When comparing the Cutanplast range to the legacy-premium gelatin sponge haemostats, the savings are huge. The below examples are calculated using the national framework to demonstrate real world examples
- A major NHS hospital in the South of England with 800 beds is achieving annual cost savings exceeding £10,000 by switching to Cutanplast Special in place of the market’s most commonly used 70x50x1mm gelatin sponge.
- A 500-bed NHS hospital in London has reduced its yearly expenditure by over £5,000 by adopting Cutanplast Anal, a clinically equivalent, cost-effective alternative to the leading brand.
- An 80-bed hospital specialising in day-case procedures is saving more than £10,000 annually by implementing a tailored mix of products from the Cutanplast range, demonstrating that meaningful cost savings are possible even in smaller settings.
- By purchasing just 10 boxes of each Cutanplast product instead of the market-leading gelatin sponge haemostat, hospitals can realise savings in excess of £15,000 per year, with even greater benefits available through broader adoption at scale.
As thousands and thousands of gelatin sponge haemostats are used a year in the UK, these savings go a long way to helping Trusts achieve the £8.4m reduction target.
The savings can be easily achieved too, with the transition to Cutanplast requiring minimal change, which will be fully supported by the UK distributor of the products, Uniplex (UK) Ltd. Uniplex will supply samples, training and literature to ensure a smooth transition to the Cutanplast product as they have with dozens of other Cutanplast users.
If you want to get started with Cutanplast and begin achieving savings in the potential thousands, just get in touch with us at Uniplex. Let us know your current gelatin-based haemostat code, and we will convert it to the Cutanplast product, provide you with a quote so you can see your real-world savings and send you samples of the product to take a look at. Click Here to get in touch or call 0114 241 3410 to get started.
References
1) Streeting, W., 2025. The government’s 2025 mandate to NHS England and NHS Operational Planning Guidance 2025-26. – Click Here
2) endoscopic sinus surgery: a prospective, randomized, multicenter study. European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Volume 272, pp. 1699 – 1705. – Click Here
