First NHS Total Cardiology Solutions procurement collaboration

NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership (the four NHS Hubs working together) is to develop a Total Cardiology Solutions framework agreement ready for April 2015.

This comes in the wake of the first successful outcome of collaboration between the four NHS procurement hubs (the launch on 14th May of a framework agreement for the supply of nursing and nursing-related staff nationally) and is the second example of collaboration in a major medical category across the NHS hubs. A Total Orthopaedic Solutions project is already underway.

NHS Collaborative Procurement Partnership (NHS CPP) comprises NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC), NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP), NHS Commercial Solutions and East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub (EOE CPH).

Mario Varela, LPP Managing Director, points out that “in addition to the ground breaking work we have been doing together on Nursing Agency and Orthopaedics, a key objective of this collaboration is to avoid duplication of effort, thereby addressing one of the main areas of concern raised by the DH in its 2013 publication Better Procurement Better Value Better Care.”

As LPP’s Medical, Surgical and Supply Chain senior workstream lead Marc Osborne says, “We are seeking to award a total solutions framework agreement that for the first time will see contract coverage across the hubs’ membership including product areas not previously taken to market. Our priority will be to deliver benefits and solutions for our respective hub members but we will be structuring the framework agreement so that it can apply nationally, further simplifying procurement in this category.”

This activity is, as Alyson Brett, Chief Executive of NHS Commercial Solutions says “demonstrating best practice for NHS procurement.”

Keith Rowley, NOE CPC Managing Director, says “We are excited by the potential opportunities this new framework will offer the NHS and its suppliers.  It is great to be continuing to build on the collaborative work taking place across the 4 NHS procurement hubs to avoid duplication and bring greater value through such procurements”.

The scope of the project is now being developed by a new cross-hub group established to run this collaboration. The group anticipates that the framework agreement will include a number of lots including:
•    ICDs and Pacemakers - to include the devices themselves as well as associated accessories including CRTP/CRDT, Loop recorders, leads, various other accessories and the availability of programmers and remote monitoring services
•    Electro Physiology - to include catheters and mapping systems
•    Cardiac Stents and Transcatheter Aortic/Pulmonary Valve Insertion Devices - to include drug eluting and bare metal stents and insertion accessories
•    Interventional Radiology Products used in Cardiology - those IR products that are specific to Cardiology procedures in Interventional Radiology
•    Hypertension - including Renal Denervation solutions
•    Heart Valves – to include tissue and mechanical valves and annuloplasty devices
•    Perfusion - to include Oxygenators and products used in Perfusion as well as bespoke Perfusion Tubing packs
•    Perfusion Services - to enable outsourcing of Perfusion service buy trusts where appropriate
•    Beating Heart Surgery Products - including Tissue Stabilisers
•    Managed Services Solutions - to include but not be exclusive to the outsourcing of Cardiac Catheter Lab services.

David John, Chief Executive of EOE CPH concludes that “”By working together, and combining national buying power with our strong regional and local engagement, we can deliver highly competitive agreements that really meet the needs of the NHS, of suppliers and above all of patients.”

22/09/2014
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