PROCUREMENT
NHS Scotland’s Louisa Jordan temporary outpatient centres.
Digitalisation’s benefits Digitalisation of areas such as inventory management has a number of benefits – from increased stock visibility to improved efficiency. The process of implementing new inventory management systems typically involves taking years’ worth of procurement and inventory data and analysing this on a ward-by-ward, setting-by-setting basis. From this a standardised list of products can be created, allowing the most critical items to be replenished automatically when stock levels dip too low. By integrating this with a streamlined inventory check system, such as handheld barcode scanners, clinical staff can automatically update stock levels as and when they use medical equipment or PPE. This allows for real-time data on stock levels, as well as freeing up valuable clinical time for frontline staff to spend with patients, rather than manually recording and updating inventory records.
In a non-acute setting, such a system
would also streamline and improve the work of procurement teams across Community Trusts or individual vaccination centres by enabling them to see a list of ‘most purchased’ products. This creates a more efficient ordering process where staff across multiple locations can quickly find the items they regularly order. A digital requisitioning application also enables bulk acknowledgment of orders from suppliers, helping larger requisition requests to be fulfilled quickly. This feature is especially important where there is a sudden spike in the demand for certain equipment, such as PPE.
Improving efficiency post-COVID Providing non-acute supply chains with digital upgrades has already proven to be an effective way to streamline processes and improve efficiency in several non- acute settings, including large vaccination centres and – pre-pandemic – several Community Trusts. Examples range from
Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust’s ability to reduce stock range down by 70% thanks to an integrated, digitalised procurement platform, to NHS Scotland’s Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow being
Providing non-acute supply chains with digital upgrades has already proven, GHX maintains, ‘to be an effective way to streamline processes and improve efficiency in several non-acute settings’.
able to seamlessly switch from an acute COVID treatment centre to a temporary outpatient centre, and, finally, a mass vaccination venue without any of its PPE stock being compromised, thanks to automated procurement and inventory management systems. One of the many lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for non-acute
settings is that there is ‘room for improvement’ when it comes to accepted supply chain processes. The needs of care homes and GP surgeries are just as important as those of hospital wards, and, in order to respond effectively to unforeseen crises such as global pandemics, they must have the same streamlined capabilities. The power of a digitalised supply chain has already been proven across vaccination centres and temporary outpatient venues; to avoid future supply shortages, the UK must consider digitalising its non- acute medical supply chain.
When Glasgow’s Louis Jordan Hospital changed purpose again in early 2021 to become a mass vaccination centre, the GHX digital solution was again able to support staff – by routing the correct PPE and equipment to nurses distributing the vaccine.
48 Health Estate Journal March 2022
Glasgow hospital’s experience The NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital in Glasgow was set up as a temporary hospital to support Scotland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its rapid mobilisation, first as a centre for COVID patients, and later as an outpatient hospital and mass vaccination centre, played a crucial role in NHS Scotland’s ability to deal with the pandemic and ensure that critical NHS services were able to run as efficiently as possible. Such a large and rapid undertaking required an inventory management system that would help the hospital to overcome the challenges of procurement and stock management in an efficient and scalable way, without requiring a large number of
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