25.02.11
Dispute over NHS supplies
The dispute between the Health Care Supply Association (HCSA) and NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) over money wasted on supplies has taken another turn.
The HCSA wrote to NHS SBS managing director John Neilson about an interview Neilson gave to The Times which the HCSA felt made misleading claims about the industry.
Neilson wrote back to the HCSA: “Firstly let me assure you that my comments should not be construed as criticism of the benefits achieved through procurement as a function, but rather recognition that the overarching commercial processes within a trust are sometimes disjointed or deficient and consequently mitigate against trusts being able to maximise the available potential savings. In particular, the article covered a number of areas around the commercial processes within trusts, for example the rationalisation of products, spend analytics, financial governance and compliance.
“I also must point out that The Times unfortunately transposed some of the numbers relating to one of the examples they used to illustrate the article, making the data in this case seem worse.
“I am happy to share this data with your council members at a meeting, subject to of course the usual restrictions of commercial confidentiality.”
HCSA executive director John Effingham said: “What is encouraging is that Mr Neilson has offered to meet with members of the council and has offered to share the data in confidence.
“The council is looking forward to meeting Mr Neilson and we will provide an update to association members, respecting any confidentiality agreement we enter into about trust specific data, as soon as possible.”
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