Procurement must become centre stage in the National Health Service if we’re to cope with the public health demands of the nation, says ITProPortal in an article looking at how procurement can contribute going forward and how the health sector buying ecosystem needs to change. Words like ‘procurement’ and ‘supply chain’ have not been heard as equally and as frequently before. And while there have been sourcing issues – the NHS is a ‘complicated, fragmented, multi-faceted organisation’ – this is a great opportunity for procurement to demonstrate the strategic role it has to play in NHS activities. With the benefit of hindsight, we should take the opportunity to learn from what has happened and use this to see what can be learnt to move us forward positively. Procurement has a much more important role to play than getting medical supplies ordered, ensuring the lowest price is paid and getting invoices settled, procurement must assess what we are buying and why, where we get items from, understand the power regimes in the marketplace, review alternatives thoroughly, and ask whether IT be used to boost order efficiency and so on. Read the whole article here.
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