The Regional Medical Director for Specialised Commissioning NHS South and Clinical Lead for High-Cost Tariff-Excluded Devices Programme (HCTED) previews his Expo 2017 presentation on how transforming NHS England procurement will enhance patient outcomes:

What influences clinical choice? How can NHS England optimise device choice to enhance patient outcomes and drive further savings through improved purchasing power? And what of price innovation?

Just some of the questions I’ll be discussing at Expo in a session entitled “Transforming Procurement – Patients, Price, Purchasing” with Howard Blackith, Programme Director, Procurement Transformation Programme, for the Department of Health; Mark Hart, Procurement Director, NHS Supply Chain, and Mark Stevens, Head of P2P at Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) & University Hospital Of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust.

Our chair, Helen Lisle (Director of Procurement and Supplies at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) is keen to hear first-hand from colleagues in the Department of Health how the NHS procurement, Future Operating Model for NHS Supply Chain will flex the tremendous buying power of the NHS, potentially saving over £600m annually and making a major contribution to healthcare efficiency. And how in NHS England, we’re making sure we are optimising device matching to clinical need, to improve value.

By collaborating with suppliers, and leveraging NHS England’s purchasing power on a national scale, the Future Operating Model will deliver better value for money for NHS England and the taxpayer. Together we can transform patient outcomes – harvesting innovation while achieving savings and making the patient pound work much harder.

All this will be supported by a new performance management and customer engagement function, and a new logistics and IT infrastructure.

In Specialised Commissioning, we know that supplier reputation, previous experience and peer recommendation are some of the factors influencing clinical choice.  But how do we currently select HCTEDs – and what is changing?

This discussion gives us a chance to shed some light on the task of rationalising the catalogue of clinical supplies. I know the list for some device types is extensive – with little focus on the HCTEDs.  The annual spend on these devices across all providers exceeds £500million.

Historically there have been wide variations in the prices that individual Trusts have paid for the same products. It is estimated that over time, the transition to a single supply chain could generate efficiency savings of around 10% of the total spend.

It will be interesting to talk about the whole procurement pathway too. With Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) led by clinicians, frontline medics welcome that programme because they can share both best practice and challenges with people that understand clinical services. The orthopaedic pilot has already helped deliver efficiencies and savings of up to £30 million, with another £20 million forecast. Good patient outcomes and safety have remained paramount throughout the programme, a lesson I’d like to bring into HCTED.

Aligning what we have achieved with the aims of the Future Operating Model, and sharing lessons learnt with programmes like GIRFT and HCTED, make transformation in NHS England procurement an exciting reality.

Why not come along and take part on day 2 of Expo 2017 – Tuesday September 12 at 09:00 (Theatre 1).

Dr Vaughan Lewis will also be taking part in a panel discussion on “Affording Innovation – Understanding NHS England’s High-Cost Tariff-Excluded Devices Programme” Tuesday September 12 at 12:00 (Pop-up University 8).