Our Procurement Team provide an end-to-end service which can see them involved in tendering a contract through to the item appearing on a shelf in a cupboard. Matthew Lessells, our Director of Estates, joined our the team to see what it takes behind the scenes to ensure that a large and complex NHS organisation has everything it needs at the right time and in the right place.
Our Procurement Team carries out strategic contracting, transactional purchasing, and materials management for NTW Solutions and Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW). Matthew was impressed by the range of what the team do, the depth of their expertise, and the real beneficial impact the team make for the services they work on behalf of.
The team helps ensure value for money on a multi-million pound budget for services, supplies and equipment for clinical and support services. They handle everything from large contracts for goods and services to routine purchasing, dealing with almost 3,000 suppliers and processing circa 40,000 purchase orders per year. The materials management service ensure that supply cupboards are stocked with what is needed, removing this burden from our clinical colleagues, allowing them to focus on patient care.
Matthew was delighted to hear the team is at the forefront of the profession and is the first in the region to have achieved a Cabinet Office accreditation for their work. He also heard about their increasing use of technology and innovation and how they have implemented a digital system which can manage tendering right through to storing contracts. The team benchmarks well in the annual NHS England corporate services survey and receives good customer feedback.
The team is always open to innovation and has recently been trialling virtual credit cards. This allows the team to send cards via email with the right amount of money loaded so that people can make purchases as needed. For example, if a clinician is booking onto a course and the provider only accepts credit cards, it could be cumbersome to make the payment in the past. The early trial shows that the virtual credit card is much easier for all concerned.
Matthew heard about some of the regular issues and problems that arise and joined the team to see for himself some of the issues that crop up. Matthew saw firsthand the depth of experience in the team and how their in-depth knowledge of the mental health sector and patients in clinical practices, developed over the years, helps the procurement team support better care by providing clinical services with what they need.
