09.04.20
NHS London Procurement Partnership working to support NHS
NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP) is one of a number of organisations and bodies diligently working behind the scenes to support our frontline NHS services to combat the demands of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.
United with the wider NHS in the fight to beat the coronavirus, NHS LPP has an important role to play in the response to the crisis, providing vital business and clinical expertise to the healthcare service through its role as a non-profit membership organisation.
Last year, the NHS LPP underwent a year of significant change, transforming form a transactional partner with a focus on frameworks to providing a complete business solution to the NHS, including consultancy services.
This has positioned the procurement organisation extremely well to respond to the crisis, with teams at NHS LPP now helping trusts find solutions to issues related to areas such as cleaning, catering, transport, car parking and temporary accommodation of staff and patients.
Maybe not the most glamorous or striking elements of the ongoing coronavirus efforts, these services all still play a role as vital cogs in the wider machine. Particularly in an area such as London, which has largely been one of the epicentres of the UK coronavirus outbreak, ensuring everything operates as efficiently and smoothly as possible is of paramount importance.
The NHS LPP teams are supporting the workforce too, helping ensure medical staff can enter the supply chain as quickly as possible and are working closely with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) to establish where other sectors have seen a reduction in resources which could be reallocated to the NHS – for example, the use of hospitality cleaners.
READ MORE: NHS LPP: NHS procurement a different way
Specialist medicines experts are monitoring the distribution and supply of medicines across London to ensure all trusts have access to what they need. In particular, they are maximising efforts to ensure particular medicines needed for the treatment of Covid-19 and access to supportive medicines for patients in intensive care are available to the medical staff needing them on the frontlines.
Technology also continues to play a key role in our response to the ongoing health crisis, with NHS LPP supporting the use of innovative technology solutions by helping with the procurement of healthcare apps and online resources.
In the meantime, the NHS LPP Business Intelligence team, which has access to finance and procurement data from across London, is constantly scanning data to identify patterns and opportunities to use data to drive behaviour and manage the response to the unprecedented crisis.
Lee Joseph, Deputy Managing Director, said: “NHS LPP is all about helping trusts respond with confidence to the changing environment and this is no exception.
“We are now absolutely focussed on using all our skills, specialist expertise and every resource available to us in helping the NHS respond to - and later recover from - the global pandemic.
“We will continue to work hard to provide the very best advice, insights and innovative solutions to support all sections of the health service through this challenging time.”