GovWire

The National Health Service (NHS) celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2018. It maintains its position as the top health system in the world amongst the 11 countries ranked in the Commonwealth Fund report which gave the NHS top marks for patient safety, efficiency, and affordability.

There are opportunities to work with the UK to:

• improve health outcomes
• propose new ideas, models, and partnerships to address important health challenges

NHS facts and figures

The NHS operates through different models in the UK under NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, NHS Northern Ireland and NHS England.

The NHS:

• accounts for around 80% of all healthcare spending in the UK
• is free to use for people who have lived in the UK for at least 6 months
• is the fifth largest employer in the world with 1.5 million employees in 2017
• deals with over 1 million patients every 36 hours
• is supported by UK health expenditure which was 9.75% of GDP in 2016

NHS procurement in England: background

The NHS spends about 27 billion every year on goods and services.

The Department of Health and Social Cares (DHSC) strategy is to build a modern, effective and efficient procurement capability that is among the best in the world.

It aims to:

• deliver taxpayer value
• support innovation
• stimulate growth
• deliver the highest quality patient care

NHS England includes:

• over 200 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)
• 135 acute trusts
• 54 mental health trusts (including 42 foundation trusts)
• 35 community providers
• 10 ambulance trusts (including 5 foundation trusts)
• 7,454 GP practices
• 853 for-profit and not-for-profit independent sector organisations, providing care to NHS patients from 7,331 locations
• 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) and 6 Academic Health Science Centres supporting research, innovation and adoption

NHS Procurement Transformation Programme

The Procurement Transformation Programme (2017 to 2018) is transforming the NHS supply chain in a phased programme that will be fully operational by October 2018.

The Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) went live on 1 April 2018. It is the management function of the new NHS Supply Chain operating model, previously known as the Future Operating Model of the Procurement Transformation Programme.

This new operating model aims to improve efficiency by making the procurement process:

• easier to access through use of a series of procurement category towers focusing on medical products, capital expenditure and non-medical spending, each of which is a separate contract with the NHS
• use the full buying power of the NHS through demand aggregation

NHS organisations can currently buy from many sources within EU procurement regulations and national and local procurement policies.

Procurement considerations are:

• value for money
• meeting NHS England Business Plan targets which are part of the Five Year Forward View, that was updated by the Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View

How to access NHS procurement channels in England

The 5 main routes to market for companies interested in supplying the NHS are through:

• selling direct to trusts or primary care organisations
• selling through the new NHS Supply Chain (moving its procurement category towers in 2018)
• selling through collaborative purchasing arrangements
• national framework collaborations and contracts
• government tenders and contracts

Selling direct to NHS Trusts or to primary care organisations in England

A company which has a specific product or service easily matched to an NHS organisation can sell directly to the healthcare service provider of its choice. This process involves identifying the right contact (generally clinicians, the procurement team and the finance team) within the selected NHS organisation.

Service providers, which include all trusts, make their own purchasing decisions and can purchase directly from the manufacturer or distributor within purchasing rules and arrangements.

Selling directly means there is:

• less competition
• better awareness of trusts needs to supply the right products and services
• direct involvement of clinicians in purchasing
• more support for research and development (R&D) in emerging treatments

However identifying the right buyer or decision maker, and with each trust operating differently can make selling directly challenging.

Applications should be made to the NHS Business Services Authority to have devices included and reimbursed through part IX of the Drug Tariff. This applies to products prescribed in a primary care setting, such as by a family doctor (GP).

Selling through NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC)

The NHSSC provides a dedicated end-to-end supply chain service that meets the needs of every NHS healthcare organisation in England.

Currently, only 40% of the NHSs nearly 6 billion spending on everyday hospital consumables, common goods, high value healthcare consumables and capital equipment goes through NHSSC. However, the aim is to increase this proportion to 80% as part of the transition to the new operating model for procurement.

A series of procurement category towers have now been contracts under the SCCL. They will focus on:

• medical products
• capital expenditure
• non-medical spending

Suppliers will have a single point of contact for each category of product with a service provider who has:

• specialist knowledge of that product category
• the ability to trade with larger volumes than the current NHSSC

Medical category towers