At the recent British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) Conference 2024, Andrew New, CEO of NHS Supply Chain, explored how NHS Supply Chain will change over the next five years to make it better to work in and with.
The BHTA Conference 2024 focused on the UK healthtech landscape over the next five years. It was a chance for BHTA members to hear from senior government and NHS speakers about how the changes made today will impact the future of the health service.
Andrew explained the fundamentals of the organisation: “NHS Supply Chain exists to try to simplify the way marketplaces work; to try to engage trusts on a collective basis so we get consistent decision-making, and it’s not sporadic as it has been historically; and to make these markets work more effectively.
“We’ve been doing a lot over the last year or so to reorganise the way we work at the same time as continuing to run very fast in delivering the benefits that all of our supply base offer to the NHS. None of this can be done without the whole system working together, and that’s a key principle of everything we’ve done.”
Andrew highlighted that NHS Supply Chain initially started out doing a fantastic job of focusing on what it was asked to do but not doing the job the NHS needs in the future. The slide below details some of the areas where NHS Supply Chain has built on solid foundations to ensure it is fit for the future.
In one year, NHS Supply Chain and suppliers have achieved a lot, Andrew explained. Headline achievements include:
He underlined that there is an opportunity to save £40 million across the NHS, but there is a backlog of work, and it requires clinical intervention.
Andrew shared NHS Supply Chain’s strategy and corporate priorities. See the slide below for further details.
One key point from Andrew’s presentation was around NHS Supply Chain’s work to enhance the clinical voice across the organisation.
“We need to enhance that voice both in the conversations we have with trusts as well as with suppliers,” he continued. “We’ve brought in a new national clinical director, Michelle Johnson, who is bringing together a clinical community to make sure we have clinically led decision-making everywhere. That is hugely valuable to us as an organisation, and we’re already seeing the benefits.”
NHS Supply Chain is going to clinically segment products in terms of priority, importance, value, and making a difference in healthcare outcomes. The organisation also wants to simplify prices so that there are not 10 different prices for the same thing.
See the slides below for an outline on the work NHS Supply Chain is doing to transform its commercial capabilities, strengthen the supply chain, and improve processes.
