Medical devices: a parallel online market circumventing rules and safety

One click is enough to discover a parallel market of medical devices on e-commerce web platforms with potential health risks for citizens. The Federation of Incontinent and Ostomy Associations (Fais), which pretended to be a user for a day, spotted this. It was enough to type 'ostomy bags' or 'catheters', on buying and selling portals between private individuals, to identify a real parallel health market that often dribbles past strict sector regulations.

'Following many reports received by our Federation, documented by unequivocal screenshots,' said Pier Raffaele Spena, president of Fais, 'we pretended to be people interested in purchasing incontinence and ostomy aids for a relative. The answers we received paint an alarming picture that we can no longer ignore. We are not talking about old books or used furniture, but essential medical devices, often life-saving, sold without any controls, without hygiene guarantees, and in total disregard of current regulations' .

The survey shows private users offering for sale massive lots of sanitary material. Ads offering 500 or 600 pieces of ostomy bags because they are 'no longer needed', or boxes of creams, sprays and protective barriers 'just bought' or in 'surplus'. Some reassure about the expiry date (2028 or 2029) and storage 'in the medicine cabinet'. But who verifies these claims?

The scenario highlights several critical issues. The first is the health risk: medical devices require specific storage conditions of temperature, humidity, packaging integrity. "Who is responsible," continues Spena, "if a patient, buying these products to save money, suffers severe skin irritations, sudden detachment or infections due to poor storage? Buying from private individuals cancels out the traceability and safety that only authorised pharmacies and health authorities can guarantee'. The second critical issue concerns the ethical aspect and the damage to the public purse: in Italy, the vast majority of these devices are provided free of charge by the National Health System to patients with chronic pathologies. Selling material received free of charge from the State constitutes an offence and damage to the community. And then there is the responsibility of online platforms that prohibit the sale of drugs and, theoretically, limit that of certain medical devices, but the filters seem insufficient.

"As a Federation, we ask the platforms to remove all ads selling medical-surgical devices for ostomy and incontinence by private users who are not authorised to sell them," Spena concludes, "and to implement strict preventive filters. To the competent authorities to initiate stricter controls on this underground online trade and, finally, to citizens never to buy medical devices from private individuals. The savings are not worth the risk of serious health complications'.