Savings programme spotlight – pharmacy procurement

The current landscape for procurement teams within the NHS is one that is consistently driving for savings to support Trusts’ financial positions, as non-pay costs continue to rise at a dramatic rate.

The current landscape for procurement teams within the NHS is one that is consistently driving for savings to support Trusts’ financial positions, as non-pay costs continue to rise at a dramatic rate. 

Outside of their ‘business as usual’ annual savings delivery targets, Procurement teams are challenged with scoping alternative areas of spend to identify opportunities to influence and improve the bottom line. One area that has previously been relatively untouched by procurement teams is pharmacy, usually due to the way it is structured and the nature of which it is managed within the NHS, as well as at a local Trust level. 

Safeguarding NHS value

NHS England’s Medicines Value and Access directorate oversees the strategic direction for the national pharmacy procurement strategy, and commercial arrangements are established by the Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) team for medicines used across the NHS. 

This covers a large proportion of pharmacy spend and provides a centrally-agreed commercial purchasing model for drugs and medicines. However, there remain areas of spend that are deemed as addressable outside of the focus of MPSC and existing regional collaborations that are purchased via pharmacy departments in Trusts. This is the area of pharmacy spend that procurement teams tend to have little visibility of due to the way it is managed, but where they can influence and further enhance potential benefits at a local level if given the opportunity to work alongside their clinical colleagues. 

Delivering value 

A lack of system harmonisation and limited insights within Trusts can become a barrier to informed data analysis, but strong stakeholder engagement and collaborative approaches to reviewing spend between procurement teams and pharmacy buyers can provide useful insight into additional areas of exploration. 

From specialist items that are an extension of spend currently managed by Trust teams, such as woundcare and haemostats, to pharmacy-specific items that are used in dispensary and aseptic wards, procurement teams can offer the potential to bring their expertise and ensure optimum value is achieved moving forwards. 

Find out how we’re working closely with our NHS clients to provide significant insights into these areas of spend and deliver commercial benefit: