29.04.13
Standardised blood pack launched across six countries
A new standardised blood pack will be used across six countries, to cut costs and improve operational resilience across services. NHS Blood and Transplant has led the collaborative procurement of Eurobloodpack with members of the European Blood Alliance (EBA) across England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire and Sanquin, for the Netherlands.
The four-year framework commences from 1 May and will allow the countries to share resources in supplier audit and product, use common specifications for blood and collate defect and quality monitoring data. The blood services will also benefit from economies of scale.
The agreement will be open to all EBA members, as well as other countries NHSBT is closely affiliated with. The initial volume of bloodpacks is around 2.5 million units per year, but this could be increased if other countries choose to join the framework.
Lynda Hamlyn, chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “This is such an important initiative and it's great that our efforts have been recognised by winning the National Government Opportunity awards for excellence in public procurement.
“Our membership of the European Blood Alliance strengthens opportunities for working in partnership on the procurement of critical consumables, sharing knowledge and expertise and exercising more leverage on supplier price and quality. This collaboration with colleagues in other countries demonstrates not only the new level of ambition in procurement now taking place within the NHS and the public sector as a whole, but the importance of meaningful and professional relationships with our suppliers.”
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