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NHS moves swiftly on procurement waste

Jim Easton, the NHS National Director for Improvement and Efficiency, has written to all chief executives inviting them to join the ‘Product Pricing Project’ aimed at revealing the prices paid for different NHS organisations for the same clinical products.

This was a key concern of a recent National Audit Office (NAO) report into NHS consumables procurement, which found a wide range in the prices being paid, and found that millions of pounds could be saved if all trusts paid the same as the one getting the best deal.

The NHS chief executives were also invited to join a Department of Health workshop to gain practical examples of how they can save money through improved procurement and input into the national procurement strategy.

Easton wrote: “You may be concerned that you have signed confidentiality agreements with some suppliers which do not permit you to disclose the price that you pay. You will need to consider each agreement individually, but I would encourage you to view the transparency of these prices as something which is in the interest of the public purse, and an issue on which the NHS should be publicly accountable.

“Pricing information in itself is not necessarily confidential, particularly where that information is either already in the public domain or there are public interest grounds for disclosing that information.

“Improving the efficiency of the procurement of goods and services in the NHS is key to saving money so resources can be redirected to the front line. Leadership and commitment to change at trust level is needed to make this happen. However, I also recognise that there are system changes and national initiatives which need to be in place to create an environment where changes of this kind can flourish.

“Whilst the National QIPP Procurement Workstream has a number of projects in

place with this aim, the recent NAO report on the procurement of consumables in the NHS has made it clear that a more developed national strategy is needed, and that this needs to be done in conjunction with the NHS. We must be confident that we have done all that we can to ensure that procurement spend is as low as it can be so that every penny saved can be ploughed back into frontline services.”

To read a full interview with the authors of the NAO report into consumables procurement and their recommendations to save the NHS half a billion pounds, see the current edition of the National Health Executive.

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