News / Providers urged to commit to bulk-bought goods

NHS Improvement has unveiled the first set of 12 core products to be purchased nationally on behalf of non-specialist acute trusts.

The move follows submissions by all 136 non-specialist acute providers to the purchasing price index benchmarking tool. NHS Improvement intends to expand the tool to all trusts from the next financial year.

The work will help compare prices and standardise catalogues, while the list of 12 core products – which include gloves, bed pans, syringes and needles – aims to use NHS buying power to get the best possible value for money.

At the moment, spending on these products amounts to £100m a year and NHS Improvement anticipates savings of up to 25%.

A letter from NHS Improvement executive director of operational productivity Jeremy Marlow (above) said NHS Supply Chain and NHS Business Services Authority (BSA) would source the products. But he insisted that for the initiative to produce maximum savings, they must purchase the list items on behalf of all providers.

‘It is vital that you commit your volumes and don’t undermine the initiative by purchasing outside the contracts,’ he added.

At this stage, NHS Improvement has decided not to mandate compliance through formal contractual or regulatory mechanisms.

Mr Marlow said change was more effective when achieved through collaboration. NHS Improvement wanted ‘a coalition of the willing’ for full compliance across the NHS.

Trusts with existing contracts that could delay their switch to the nationally sourced products have been asked to send details to NHS Improvement.

The programme started in September and the products are expected to be available from early in the new calendar year.

NHS Improvement plans to expand the list up to 2019, when a future operating model being developed at the Department of Health is scheduled to take effect. This will cover most of the estimated £5bn annual spend on goods and supplies.