Heartbeat: Black Country Alliance procurement partnership delivering on savings
December 24, 2018
Procurement and supplies is often an overlooked subject in many organisations but a regional alliance is changing the way procurement is managed here at SWBH, alongside Dudley Group Foundation Trust and Walsall Healthcare Trust.
The Black Country Alliance procurement partnership (BCAPP) is a nationally recognised collaboration between local trusts, which has built close links with suppliers and the Department of Health and Social Care to enable us to procure both clinical and non-clinical products in volume.
The procurement partnership which was formed in July 2015 has already seen success with savings of over £1.5million being achieved, with the accomplishment being attributed to engagement with clinicians and frontline colleagues.
To find out more about the partnership and the secrets to its success, Heartbeat caught up with Janice Nelson, Clinical Procurement Specialist Nurse.
She said: “It’s fair to say that the success of the partnership is through the engagement with clinicians to seek advice and enable frontline colleagues to lead on product evaluations, as they are central to patient care, using clinical products and equipment on a daily basis.
“Clinicians add real value to procurement processes by highlighting other crucial aspects of product suitability besides simply cost, such as usability, safety, quality and patient comfort.
“A recent example of this is through the procurement of neuraxial connectors for spinal needles (NR Fit). New safer ‘non-standardised’ small bore (non-Luer) connectors are now being introduced across the NHS to minimise the risk of wrong route errors when administrating medication via oral/enteral and neuraxial routes”.
Dr Krishnan, Consultant Anaesthetist, clinical lead for this product evaluation, explained the importance of this change: “This unique connector will promote better patient safety and helps ensure that connectors for unrelated applications are incompatible. I am confident that this will reduce the chances of the wrong route injections and infusions and the harm and death associated with these incidents to our patients.”
Louisa Adams, Theatre Matron added: “Working collaboratively with the BCAPP has enabled us to take a pragmatic, structured look at non-pay saving opportunities within the organisation.
“The support the team offers interfacing with suppliers, partnership hospitals and the wider Trust team enables us to plan effective product evaluations and is supportive in the delivery of savings.
“With the governance structure in place, we are able to get a timely and definitive clinical decision which allows for the implementation of improved products for patient use as well as realising savings for the organisation.”