NTW Solutions are introducing a Materials Management service at the Carleton Clinic in Cumbria and Tracey Sopp our Managing Director saw first-hand how it is working in a recent visit. Materials Management is a process whereby stocks are ordered and delivered on to wards or cupboards close by to make sure that everything is on hand for clinical teams whenever they need it.

Tracey heard how the Materials Management system is set up on Ruskin Ward with all of the items and stock levels sorted and the cupboard in place. There’s been great feedback from the clinical team and our experience has been from elsewhere that once teams have collaborated with a Materials Management team they would never go back to the systems they had before.

Tracey heard how there is still a long way to go in setting up the system in Cumbria, with other wards still waiting to fully go live, but with some of the outlying sites set up and already working well. There are a range of items available through the service, including the food and drink items that the wards need, as well as clinical items with everything from bandages to blood bottles. This is alongside a whole range of stationary and essential forms that wards use.

The system saves clinical staff time that would otherwise be used in ordering items, sorting purchase orders and taking deliveries. All of that is sorted by NTW Solutions and helps to support better care. On a recent external audit by clinicians from an external trust, who said they didn’t have materials management, they said how fantastic the service was and how they wanted to benefit and would be following up the possibility within their trust.