Procurement of PPE, diagnostics and medical devices to be in-housed by national agency

The national supply chain agency will bring management of significant areas of NHS spend in-house on a permanent basis in a major overhaul of its operating model, HSJ has been told.

NHS Supply Chain’s current operating model, which has existed since 2018, has outsourced day-to-day management of the procurement of most of the goods and services bought by trusts as part of the “category towers” structure.

Under this structure, 11 category towers each cover a different spend area with a service provider to manage the available products and services.

But, in an exclusive interview, NHSSC chief Andrew New said the 11 categories would be reduced to eight. Three of the new categories — personal protective equipment, “medical capital” (which combines large capital diagnostics equipment with smaller scale diagnostics, pathology and point of care testing categories) and “medical clinically complex” surgical products and services — would be managed in-house. 

The new model will come into effect in 2023-24 following a procurement process to find new suppliers for the revamped category structure, which starts on 11 April 2022 with the publication of the contract notice.

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Source: HSJ, 4 April 2022