29.06.16
AdviseInc the preferred bidder for Lord Carter’s purchasing price index
AdviseInc has been selected as the preferred bidder for the NHS’s new purchasing price index, which was recommended in the recent Carter Review.
Lord Carter had said that from April this year NHS Improvement should hold trusts to account on their performance against the index, which would start with a basket of around 100 products, so that trusts are able to compare their performance with their peers on price and volume.
As well as greatly increasing transparency in the acute sector, the move is expected to save around £1bn a year by 2020-21, a considerable share of Lord Carter’s £5bn efficiency savings plan.
Matthew Oram, director at AdviseInc, confirmed to NHE that the company, which supports organisations with all elements of non-pay spend, is the preferred bidder for the index.
He added that the contract will be a “key piece of work” and it is the culmination of work carried out by the company in recent years. Oram said that once the paperwork and contract negotiations are completed it should be “all systems go”.
The index will have three separate sub-indices focused on common goods, clinical consumables and high-cost medical devices.
Within the next one or two years, Lord Carter’s team would like this index to develop into a national analytics and reporting system so that trusts can have full insight into what they buy, how much they buy and what they pay for goods, as well as how this compares with other acute providers
“For the first time this will provide the NHS with a single national reporting system on purchase prices,” said the Carter Review.
NHS Improvement has also launched a consultation on a new single oversight framework, which is designed to help identify the support needs of both NHS trusts and foundation trusts.
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