05.08.16
Procurement restructuring could put whole supply chain at risk – HCSA
Healthcare management professionals are concerned that changes in procurement could fragment the whole supply chain, according to the Health Care Supply Association (HCSA).
Helen Lisle, the chair of the HCSA, wrote to Pat Mills, commercial director at the Department of Health, on 20 July with her concerns, but has not yet received a response.
The HCSA said that NHS procurement managers feel that the Department of Health is failing to engage with them in the changes, generating “a high level of anxiety”, and do not feel that they sufficiently understand the new operating model being proposed.
It added that the Department of Health is “encouraging and maintaining” competition between procurers.
HCSA noted that it broadly supports the Carter Review’s recommendations for improved procurement management in order to deliver savings, but that it had “significant reservations regarding the scope, scale, complexity, timing and pace” of reforms to procurement.
It also said that procurement has suffered from a lack of clear leadership since the government abolished the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency in 2010.
The HCSA said that it should be engaged in the design of the operating model, and given access to the strategic options analysis and shortlisting process which has led to the current proposals.
It also recommended that the Department of Health immediately carries out a review of the benefits of extending the NHS Supply Chain contract in order to allow trusts to build on procurement savings of 24-63% which have already been achieved through collaboration with other trusts.
Lisle wrote for NHE earlier this year about the impact of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
The HCSA concerns about procurement come at a time when the NHS is struggling to meet its £22bn deficit by 2020.
Adam Sewell-Jones, executive director of improvement at NHS Improvement, recently told NHE that NHS trusts should procure supplies in bulk in order to help improve their finances.
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