E-procurement/GS1 standards
introducing GS1 standards would allow every English NHS hospital to save ‘an average of £3 million each year’, while simultaneously improving patient care. Speaking at the GS1 event, Lord Philip Hunt, GS1 UK’s President, who is also treasurer of the All-Party Parliamentary Health Group, noted that Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had already saved ‘at least £25,000 every month, just in the consumables used in general surgery, imaging, and pathology laboratories’. By the year-end, GS1 UK and the DH say there should be ‘documented savings’, with the demonstrator sites set to run until the end of 2017. To find out more, I spoke firstly to Glen Hodgson, GS1 UK’s head of Healthcare, and, secondly, to Chris Slater, who, as the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s associate director, Commercial and Procurement, is spearheading the work of England’s third largest NHS acute Trust in adopting the standards.
Background to collaboration Glen Hodgson explained that GS1 UK had in fact worked closely with the Department of Health since the 2010 publication of the DH’s Coding for Success document – which argued for a single identification method for products and places ‘inside the NHS’. The document discussed adoption of patient identification and patient wristbands featuring GS1 identifiers, while the development of an International Standard, ISB 1077, for the first time allowed the NHS number to be slightly adjusted to incorporate a GS1 prefix, and used on patient wristbands. This’ unique identifier’ could be
recognised in any healthcare system globally.
In 2012 the DH signed a five- year contract with GS1 UK to ‘purchase membership’ of GS1, and therefore licences for prefixes – effectively the building blocks of the GS1 standards, for all acute NHS hospitals and all NHS directly-funded entities across England. This gave each Trust the licence to issue GS1 codes; they could thus start using them themselves. In the early days, the numbers were typically used to track and trace aseptic compounds produced by hospital pharmacies, for other asset management, and for kitting of operating theatre procedure trays.
Chris Slater, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s associate director, Commercial and Procurement.
Early adopters Glen Hodgson explained: “There were some early adopter hospitals. Then, in 2014, the DH published its eProcurement Strategy, mandating the use of GS1 standards throughout English NHS acute hospitals. The Strategy states that any product or service supplied to the NHS in England that results in an invoice should be GS1-compliant – from a pharmaceutical to a window pane. However, it recommends that the service initially focus on implantable medical devices, pharmaceuticals, medical/surgical equipment, and, subsequently, on staff, contract purchasing, and stationery. The reason
for the initial focus on pharmaceutical/medical devices is that forthcoming legislation requires their traceability and serialisation.” The legislation in question is the Unique Device Identification Directive – under which all medical devices supplied into the US already require a Unique Device Identifier (UDI), and the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD), which aims to prevent falsified medicines entering the European supply chain. Under the FMD, all medicine packaging must contain a unique identifier, to enable the authenticity of prescription medicines to be verified by checking of serial numbers against a central database. By February 2018, suppliers not complying will be unable to trade, while compliance with the UDI will be mandatory ‘between 2018 and 2020’, depending on the class of device.
Lord Philip Hunt, GS1 UK’s President.
Requirement to nominate a lead
Moving to November 2014, and Glen Hodgson explained that a letter from Richard Douglas, then director of finance at the DH, asked every English acute Trust to nominate a GS1 lead, making it clear that such individuals should ideally not be procurement or IT directors, since, as this was ‘a culture change and business transformation programme’, the Department wished it to receive Board-level attention. Following the letter, 123 of the 154 English NHS Trusts nominated GS1 leads. The DH then asked Trusts to develop GS1 adoption plans, and said it would look to identify demonstrator sites, before in June 2015 announcing that it would run a competition, and fund those selected. Trusts were invited to submit plans and confirm their wish to be part of the ‘demonstrator site’ programme. The DH said it would then compile a shortlist of 12, and fund each in developing a business case. Fifty-four Trusts produced business plans, 29 confirmed their wish to be ‘demonstrator sites’, and 12 were shortlisted during late 2015. In January 2016, the DH announced the six Trusts selected as ‘demonstrator sites of excellence’. Glen Hodgson elaborated: “These demonstrator projects are now funded to the tune of £12 m overall over two years.
As conference delegates were reminded, the Department of Health’s eProcurement Strategy, published in April 2014, mandated that any service or product procured by an English NHS acute Trust comply with the standards.
A different name “Some Trusts,” he added, “are further than others along the journey. As Chris Slater will explain, the six demonstrator sites
Health Estate Journal 25September 2016
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