BOA welcomes Department of Health new strategy on procurement

The Department of Health published its new procurement strategy this week. The strategy outlines the government’s new blueprint on all NHS spending - from rubber gloves and stitches to new hips, building work, bed pans and temporary staff. The aim of new strategy is to fundamentally change how the NHS spends its money and to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending. It is hoped that this will result in efficiency savings of up to £1.5billion.

The BOA broadly welcomes the proposals in the Department of Health’s new procurement strategy. We are particularly supportive of the initiative which will require Trusts to share commercially sensitive information regarding the prices they pay for orthopaedic implants. We believe that this has been one of the main barriers to gaining better value from suppliers. 

We are confident that sharing this information will serve to provide a better insight into each Trust’s costs-to-serve, which could therefore provide an incentive to become a better and more efficient customer. High and variable costs for implants have been of concern to orthopaedic surgeons for some time, and, as a profession, we have not had the appropriate tools to tackle this growing problem.

The BOA has been working closely with the Department of Health and relevant stakeholders on the government’s procurement work stream, and we look forward to continuing this engagement to ensure that the concerns of the orthopaedic profession continue to be of high priority on the government’s procurement agenda.

You can read the full copy of the procurement strategy here.