News / NHS eyes £1.5bn procurement savings

Trusts in England will be required to publish details of the prices they pay for goods and services and cut temporary staffing spending by 25% under a new procurement strategy that aims to save £1.5bn.

The Department of Health said the figures, to be published by each trust, will be made into an index, which will allow price comparisons and hold trust boards to account.

Temporary staff spending, which currently costs £2.4bn a year, will be cut by 25% by the end of 2016. Other measures include recruiting a procurement champion; improving support to senior NHS staff to ensure they better understand procurement; and the Department will target bulk deals on large equipment. Pre-qualification questionnaires will be simplified and may be abolished for low-value purchases.

Launching the new procurement strategy, Better procurement, better value, better care: a procurement development programme for the NHS, health minister Dan Poulter said wide variations in costs could no longer be allowed.

‘We must end the scandalous situation where one hospital spends hundreds of thousands more than another hospital just down the road on something as simple as rubber gloves or syringes, simply because they haven’t got the right systems in place to ensure value for money for local patients. This kind of poor resource management cannot go on.’

Foundation Trust Network chief executive Chris Hopson (left) said collaboration was key. ‘This partnership needs to solve the key conundrum that trusts must run their organisations as they think best. But the strategy can only succeed if they voluntarily agree to buy together,’ he said.