News / Supply Chain agrees £300m savings target

Supply Chain, operated by DHL, starts the new contract on 1 October, targeting an extra £150m of savings on top of the previous contract’s target of £150m by March 2016.

Chief executive Nick Gerrard said: ‘To deliver these, we will continue to work with our suppliers and customers on savings programmes such as the NHS Core List and Compare and Save, to ensure we are supporting the NHS with its requirement to deliver further cash-releasing savings.’

Supply Chain said it was on course to hit the March target, having delivered £100m of cash-releasing savings between April 2013 and August this year.

The NHS Business Services Authority and Supply Chain will work closely to deliver the savings highlighted in Lord Carter’s report on procurement.

The HFMA is also undertaking some work around the Carter review proposals. A roundtable later this year will bring together finance directors, some from the 22 organisations that formally supported the review process, to discuss the opportunities to improve productivity.

‘We want to understand better the opportunities identified across the four areas – workforce and workflow; hospital pharmacy and medicines; estates; and procurement – and drill a bit deeper into the practicalities of actually realising these savings,’ said Paul Briddock, HFMA policy and technical director.

‘But we mustn’t assume these savings are already banked. They may well be achievable, but they will require investment and hard work to put into practice.’