26 March 2009 – Cavendish Conference Centre, London

Evolving the NHS

The recent GO Conferences National NHS Procurement Conference provided delegates with insightful information into the current NHS procurement landscape, writes Morven MacNeil, GO Features Editor.

The NHS currently spends an estimated £17 billion a year on its outsourced requirements, procuring an extensive range of goods and services to provide effective health care to patients. Consider the vast array of supplies that are needed to operate a hospital - from catering to clinical equipment, from needles and syringes to electricity and fuel, and from bed linen to ambulances. The list is almost endless.

The GO Conferences National NHS Procurement Conference – Evolving NHS Procurement – held recently at the Cavendish Conference Centre, London provided current and potential suppliers to the NHS with a unique insight into the latest developments and initiatives within NHS procurement, and how these changes present opportunities to develop their business.

Speakers included Duncan Eaton, former Chief Executive of NHS PASA; Neil Argyle, former Director of Pharmaceuticals at NHS PASA; Helen MacCarthy, Procurement Director at NHS PASA; and Mark Roscrow, Director of Welsh Health Supplies.

In November 2008 the Office of Government Commerce issued its Procurement Capability Review (PCR) of the Department of Health and the NHS. This included the DH’s response and action plan. Changes to NHS procurement practices and procedures will begin to be implemented during 2009.

Duncan Eaton was a member of the team which carried out the PCR, looking at commissioning and Primary Care Trusts as well as goods and services. Mr Eaton said he found real quality in leadership and operations across the whole of the NHS, and the report emphasises the amount of good procurement work being carried out in the health sector. The PCR also found that the NHS’s ability to deliver change was significant and impressive.

However, Mr Eaton also said that health procurement had become dysfunctional in some areas. He added: “The view was that centrally led changes (such as outsourcing, the Hubs and NHS PASA) had caused even more complication and duplication because there was no strategic overview when those initiatives were instigated.”

Mr Eaton also spoke to delegates about the current financial situation. He said: “We can’t talk about procurement without talking about the financial environment. The NHS spends a lot of money – over £90 billion. Within a year, if allocations go on as they were, that will be a fourfold increase per patient in England in terms of money available for health care since this Government came into power in 1997.

“The financial environment is clearly going to be tough. Irrespective of how much money is out there, there isn’t enough. Suppliers will be under continual scrutiny and demands will be made for better prices because the NHS is still expected to find three per cent annual efficiency savings. Procurement is seen as a major part of getting better value and straight savings.”

Helen MacCarthy discussed the core responsibilities and key priorities of NHS PASA, linking them back to the culture of working within the Department of Health (DH) and how that directly relates to the activities of procurement.

She said: “What we strongly believe in procurement is that co-production is the way to move things forward. You don’t do things in isolation; you need to work with your suppliers and customers. We need to make sure that we have a common goal, and by producing things together then at least there is an ownership of those end results – everybody should understand what we are trying to do. Co-production is now one of the things that you often see in procurement, and it is being promoted by DH as one of the key principles for change.”

Ms MacCarthy also looked at leadership and localisation, asking: “How often do we understand what the local requirements are? – and do they marry up with national initiatives as well?”