The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) could save potentially “billions” of pounds a year with the introduction of new procurement criteria for medical supplies.
Following an 18 month campaign by Essity, a hygiene product manufacturer, the NHS is reportedly planning to alter the criteria by which it procures medical supplies. The campaign hinged on the need for value-based procurement practices in the NHS, which faced recent scrutiny in a recent report by the National Audit Office (NAO). An NAO report found earlier this year that the NHS, which has approximately 1.6 million interactions with patients every day, is not fully utilising its spending power to save money when purchasing medical equipment and consumables.
The report also, according to an open letter to the Government Essity submitted in January, found that delivering the right products for the NHS at the cheapest sustainable price is essential to make every pound count for patients. However, Essity expressed concerns that “the current focus by NHS procurement on acquisition costs alone is failing to acknowledge the importance of value for money across the whole patient pathway, and that lowest price does not always translate to best value.”
In support of its campaign, Essity also demonstrated that, by opting for the cheapest incontinence products on the market, the NHS is incurring an additional £520,418,989 annually as a result of the products’ poor quality.
The Mirror reports that a pilot project in several NHS Community Trust care homes found that higher cost items resulted in long-term savings due to higher better-quality and more suitable products, not to mention improvements to patient care.
Next steps for value-based NHS procurement
The new guidelines for value-based procurement in the NHS will likely take effect later this year. Karen McNamara, business director for Essity’s Health and Medical division in the UK, hailed the decision as “wonderful news for our NHS. Finally, patients can look forward to a better quality of care no matter their illness or condition.”
Lord Philip Hunt, a member of the House of Lords and a fervent supporter of Essity’s proposal, announced the policy alteration. Lord Hunt has been a vocal advocate for value-based procurement since meeting with representatives of the company in 2023.
“Who would have thought that the humble absorbent continence pad could have such an impact, so quickly, on something as important as NHS procurement policy and practice—but it shows what can be delivered when a campaign for change is built upon irrefutable evidence that a change will be a win-win for patients, for carers and for NHS and social care providers alike, particularly when it is taken forward in a constructive, cross-party campaign,” said Lord Hunt.
