Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what role has recently been played by Deloitte, and at what cost, in the development by NHS Improvement of proposals to introduce a centralised NHS procurement system for products and services; and what steps are being taken to ensure that the introduction of such a system does not lead to a restriction on the freedom of medical practitioners to prescribe any continence product on the Medicines Tariff that they consider to be the most appropriate product for the individual patient.

NHS Improvement, through an open and competitive procurement process, awarded Deloitte a contract to support NHS Improvement to develop a new NHS Procurement Target Operating Model. The contract for phase 1 of this work, which ended on 31 May 2019, cost £400,000.

The new Procurement Target Operating Model will consider the processes, data, and skills and capabilities to deliver a more efficient procurement service. The remit of the Procurement Target Operating Model programme does not cover clinical products and therefore were not considered as part of this review. NHS Improvement has collaborated with National Health Service providers’ chief executives, finance and procurement leads to develop the NHS’s procurement target operating model. Members of the Healthcare Supply Association have also been engaged with as part of the target operating model’s development.

Clinical products, including continence products, which are procured by the NHS are the remit of Supply Chain Coordination Limited who work with NHS providers’ procurement teams across England. Clinical product suppliers have not been engaged with on the new procurement target operating model as they are outside the its remit.