PROCUREMENT XXXX
Mixed messages on eProcurement support
NHE’s David Stevenson looks at the issue of compliance with the government’s eProcurement Strategy and what support is being provided from the Department of Health.
To
comply with the government’s eProcurement Strategy, NHS acute
trusts (FT and non-FT) must, during 2014- 15, develop and begin implementing a trust board-approved GS1 and PEPPOL adoption plan.
The 32-page document, covered in-depth in the May/June edition of NHE, notes that “detailed guidance” will be published for NHS providers, including compliance dates, along with templates to support the local production of adoption plans and business cases.
Since the launch of the Strategy in May, NHE has contacted numerous NHS acute trusts to assess what support has been received. The response: mixed.
Respondent views ranged from having “no help at all” to “we are working with the DH to understand the implications for our trust and to develop a coordinated approach”.
‘Left to get on with it’
A procurement director from a large trust in the West Midlands, who asked to remain anonymous, told us: “I think the DH is working very closely with a few hand-picked organisations – that is my impression of it. There is a group where it is testing some models out, but the rest of us are being left to get on with it ourselves.
“That isn’t a problem for my trust because we’ve invested heavily in eProcurement technology for a number of years and we’ve got a very good system in place that ticks all the right boxes. The last part of our jigsaw is the GS1-compliant ‘point of view’ stock control system, for which we’ve got internal approval
26 | national health executive Nov/Dec 14
and have driven the business case – but with no help from the centre.
“We’re the second biggest user of GHX, a pretty robust data exchange and data storage system, in the English NHS. De facto, we will be PEPPOL-compliant, but at the end of the day Steve Graham, [the DH lead on NHS eProcurement policy], has got to come out with something that actually is founded in reality – not this blue-skies stuff that he talks about at conferences.
“As I look across my patch, we’re ahead of the game. When I look around, though, there are trusts still using paper acquisitions; we lost paper seven years ago. But these need help and support from the centre.”
Workshops
Nicola Atack, technology team project manager at the London Procurement Partnership (LPP), who is responsible for supporting members to meet the requirements of the eProcurement Strategy, told NHE: “LPP representatives have attended two workshops for procurement intermediary organisations, enabling us to meet with the national eProcurement Strategy team.”
The purpose of the workshops was to ensure LPP’s strategies and plans were aligned – or to work out how to address any misalignments. It was also to agree how intermediaries could best work with their member trusts to drive the national strategy forward, together with identifying the national support needed for both intermediaries and trusts.
In September, LPP also held an informative workshop for its members on GS1 standards
and implementation of the eProcurement Strategy, which included presentations from GS1 UK and the DH.
However, Atack noted that its members are still “waiting for the DH guidance documents and templates”, to ensure that any plans they create follow the correct format and cover all salient areas.
She stated that each member organisation is in a different starting position when approaching the development of their plan.
In terms of the procurement elements, some have very advanced inventory management systems in place and already use document exchange and eInvoicing solutions. For these organisations, their adoption plans will focus on making minor changes to their embedded supply chain processes that will enable the additional benefits that come from GS1 compliance, “once the supplier base is in a position to move forward”.
But other organisations will need to consider significant investment and process redesign in order to begin GS1 and PEPPOL adoption, added Atack.
Compliance certification
To enable NHS providers to demonstrate progress in becoming compliant, the DH said it will develop a certification scheme for NHS providers and their suppliers, and a framework agreement will be put in place with external accreditation organisations to provide certification services.
Certification will be at the levels of: GS1 ready; GS1 implementing; and GS1 compliant, while
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