Polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl) plays a critical role in modern healthcare, offering unparalleled versatility, safety, and performance across a wide range of medical applications. From life-saving medical devices such as blood bags and tubing to pharmaceutical packaging, hospital infrastructure, rehabilitation equipment, ambulances, and emergency response solutions, vinyl provides solutions that meet the strictest safety and regulatory standards.
Its unique material properties – including biocompatibility, chemical resistance, and ease of processing – ensure that vinyl remains the preferred material for hospitals, clinics, and patient care settings. Additionally, its recyclability through initiatives like VinylPlus® Med and VinylPlus® PharmPack highlights its role in the circular economy, helping reduce waste and improve sustainability in healthcare.
Explore the various applications of vinyl in healthcare and discover why it remains the trusted choice for medical professionals worldwide:
Medical Devices
Medical Bags
Medical bags are indispensable in healthcare, facilitating the safe storage and transfer of essential fluids, from blood to medications. Vinyl is the leading material with a market share of 80+ % and the only material meeting the stringent standards for blood bags.
Medical Tubing
Vinyl is the single most used polymer for medical tubing, with a market share of more than 50%. Serving as a lifeline in various applications, vinyl ensures that healthcare professionals can deliver treatments safely and effectively.
Catheters & Guidewires
From urinary catheters and central venous catheters to dialysis, suction, and guidewires, vinyl’s unique properties enable safe, flexible, and reliable solutions used across healthcare.
Breathing & Ventilation
From oxygen masks and endotracheal tubes to ventilator circuits and nebulisers, vinyl ensures reliable performance in respiratory care.
Diagnostic & Treatment Equipment
Vinyl is vital in diagnostic and treatment equipment, used in cables, lead wires, connectors, fluid delivery systems, laboratory tubing, and more.
Surgical & Patient Safety Supplies
From surgical drapes and gloves to patient gowns and wound dressings, vinyl is essential in critical healthcare environments. It is also widely used in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including boots, gowns, aprons, gloves, and goggles.
Training Manikins
Vinyl is widely used in medical training manikins due to its realistic texture, durability, and ease of cleaning. These manikins help simulate procedures such as resuscitation, intubation, and injection, playing a key role in medical education and emergency preparedness.
Pharmaceuticals
Blister Packaging
As the standard base material for pharmaceutical blister packaging, vinyl safeguards medicines, ensuring their protection, extended shelf life, and safe delivery to patients. PVC blisters are recyclable, and VinylPlus® PharmPack is advancing their collection and recyclability.
Pharmaceutical Research, Manufacturing & Distribution
Vinyl is essential in pharmaceutical research, manufacturing, and distribution. From medical bags and flooring in labs to hoses, cables, and conveyor belts in factories, and truck components in distribution, vinyl ensures safe, durable, and hygienic solutions throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain.
Hospital Infrastructure
Flooring, Ceiling & Wall Coverings
Vinyl flooring for hospitals offer durability, shock absorption, and chemical resistance. It is easy to clean, helping maintain hygienic environments in healthcare facilities. Vinyl ceilings and wall coverings, which can incorporate recycled medical vinyl collected by VinylPlus® Med, enhance infection control, fire safety, and long-term performance in medical settings.
Windows & Doors
PVC window frames and doors offer hospitals a durable, energy-efficient, and low-maintenance solution, lasting over 50 years without repainting. In clinical areas, PVC-clad doors enhance hygiene, fire safety, and impact resistance, making them ideal for operating theatres and corridors. PVC windows and doors are also successfully recycled across Europe, supporting circularity in healthcare infrastructure.
Mattress Covers & Medical Furniture
Vinyl is widely used in hospital mattress covers, clinic beds, ambulance stretchers, dental chairs, and medical and visitor furniture, offering durability, hygiene, and resistance to stains and moisture. Its impermeability and easy maintenance help prevent infections, while its versatility in coatings, edge bands, and upholstery makes it ideal for both functional and aesthetic healthcare environments.
Cables & Lighting
Vinyl is essential for power cables, medical device wiring, and other hospital-grade cables, providing insulation, flexibility, and fire resistance. It is also used in conduits, lighting profiles, fixtures, and busbars, ensuring reliable performance in healthcare environments.
Water Management
Good health requires clean water and sanitation, especially in hospital settings with vulnerable patients. PVC pipes are the trusted choice for drinking water supply, soil & waste systems, and sewage management, ensuring hygienic, durable, and corrosion-resistant solutions for healthcare facilities.
Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
Vinyl is a cost-effective and durable choice for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, offering advantages over traditional metal. It resists rust and corrosion, provides excellent insulation, and ensures long-lasting performance in ducts and drain lines.
Roofing
Vinyl roofing membranes are leak-resistant, fire-safe, and reduce heat absorption, improving the efficiency of solar panels and overall energy performance.
Rehabilitation & Home Care
Wheelchairs & Mobility Aids
Vinyl coatings and components are found in wheelchair seats, armrests, and mobility aids due to their durability, comfort, and easy cleaning.
Prosthetics
Vinyl is used in prosthetics for its flexibility, durability, and lightweight properties. It is ideal for custom-molded sockets, protective coverings, and structural components, ensuring comfort, functionality, and longevity for users.
Patient Comfort & Hospital Art
Vinyl plays a role in creating soothing and functional hospital environments. It is used in wall murals, privacy curtains, and decorative panels, combining durability and hygiene with aesthetics to enhance patient comfort and support healing through thoughtful design.
Rehabilitation Equipment & Home Care
Vinyl plays a vital role in rehabilitation and home care equipment such as waterbeds, bedside accessories like IV poles, exercise balls, mats, and treadmills. Vinyl bathroom safety handles also offer support to people with limited mobility and balance.
Emergency & Transport Equipment
Ambulance Equipment
Vinyl is key to ambulance design, across both interior and exterior components: Reflective bands for visibility, fuel hoses, interior panels, upholstery, stretchers, cables, dashboard covers, underbody protection, and various lifesaving medical equipment.
Emergency Structures
Vinyl is essential in rapid-deployment emergency structures, including field hospitals, temporary relief shelters, and vaccination centres. Used by military, humanitarian organisations, and disaster response teams, PVC-based shelters offer reliable protection and long-term performance, even in extreme weather conditions.
Sea Rescue & Transport Equipment
Vinyl plays a critical role in sea rescue and transport equipment, ensuring durability, waterproofing, and safety in harsh marine conditions. Vinyl eyelets and grommets stand out as the only material that can be high-frequency (HF) welded, providing strong, reliable sealing in life-saving gear such as inflatable rafts, life vests, and buoyancy devices.
Virus Outbreak Response
Vinyl enables the production of durable, fluid-resistant PPE such as boots, gowns, gloves, aprons, and face shields. Trusted in outbreak settings, it supports infection control and healthcare worker protection in high-risk environments.