NHS: Procurement

(asked on 18th April 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is meant by the term "value-based procurement" in the context of NHS Supply Chain; whether it is their policy that such a value-based procurement approach applies to medical devices and similar product procurements by the NHS; and what steps they are taking to promote the widespread adoption of this approach to procurement of medical devices and similar products.


Answered by
Lord Markham Portrait
Lord Markham
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 11th May 2023

Value-based procurement (VBP) is a procurement approach that delivers a reduction in the whole life costs of healthcare where value can be created from financial, efficiency, patient, and environmental benefits.

In May 2019, NHS Supply Chain launched a project to consider the potential benefits and practical application of VBP. This involved a series of pilot projects to test the concept of VBP in practice, with a view to producing a scalable model for potential wider deployment.

An internal toolkit for the use of Category Tower Service Providers was produced as an output of the VBP project. It is designed to be flexibly applied to the varying product ranges procured through NHS Supply Chain. Central to the guide has been the creation of two models: one can be applied to the renewal of existing frameworks/contracts for product ranges, the other for the procurement of innovation. Activity will be delivered across a wide range of categories including cardiology, orthopaedics, sterile intervention equipment and ward-based consumables.

The Government's new Medical Technology Strategy, published in February 2023, commits to developing an environment that supports the understanding and delivery of value for money and affordability across the whole patient pathway, using high quality data to ensure that prices are both reasonable for the health system and sustainable for suppliers. The application and adoption of VBP in the National Health Service is a key priority under the strategy to realise the potential of medical technology to improve patient outcomes and support the NHS workforce. The Department’s Medical Technology Directorate is working closely with NHS Supply Chain and NHS England to build on the work already undertaken to ensure that a consistent methodology is now developed and adopted at both a national and local level.

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