Meet NHS Supply Chain’s Innovation Team
As part of our focus on #InnovationMatters, we sat down with NHS Supply Chain’s Innovation Team to find out more about what they do and their collaborative work across NHS Supply Chain and with stakeholders.
- Who are the innovation team?
The Innovation team sit within the Supplier Relationship Management team at NHS Supply Chain alongside Supplier Development, Performance & Risk and the SRM programme.
The team consists of an Innovation lead and two innovation specialists.
Michaela Russell, the innovation lead, has nearly 20 years of procurement experience across the NHS landscape within both clinical and non-clinical categories, with the last five years at NHS Supply Chain.
Fay Allen, an innovation specialist, is a registered nurse with over 28 years of experience, across the UK and Ireland. Fay joined NHS Supply Chain four years ago, following her role as a ward sister and shared governance lead.
The team were recently joined by Jo Norris, an innovation specialist. Jo joined the team from the community and rehabilitation category, bringing a wealth of experience in both procurement and as a registered nurse for 20 years working both in community and acute settings.
- What is the purpose of the innovation team?
The team work with our partners such as the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, NICE and the Health Innovation Networks as a partner organisation on national programmes and policies to drive influence and scale.
We are a named partner on the NHS Innovation service, offering procurement expertise and guidance to suppliers on their submissions, including but not limited to, innovative products that are ready for market, not currently available on frameworks, and are supported by evidence.
We support adoption by bringing innovative products to market via legally compliant routes, ensuring they are readily available for the whole NHS through our frameworks. Innovations available via NHS Supply Chain are detailed in our Strategy Opportunities Document. https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/sod
- What value does the innovation team bring to NHS Supply Chain customers / suppliers?
As you may know, NHS Supply Chain manage the sourcing, delivery and supply of healthcare products, services and food for NHS trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales.
We are an integral part of the NHS family, working in collaboration with the healthcare system and suppliers to ensure our supply chain is cost-efficient, resilient, and responsive to frontline needs – helping the NHS to put patients first.
By leveraging the collective buying power of the NHS through national frameworks, we help support the healthcare system to achieve their financial, operational and strategic objectives.
By partnering with the national programmes and policies, NHS Supply Chain Innovation team collaborate across the Innovation landscape to ensure innovation is a key feature in all our national frameworks and that procurement is at the forefront of national policies and programs.
Ease of access to innovative products for our customers has several identified benefits. The use of one specific product has evidence to support improvement in swallowing to allow a patient to eat a pureed diet rather than having to be fed by a tube in their abdomen, reduced infections and hospital admissions associated with swallowing difficulties.
Product innovations have identified improved patient outcomes, such as: reduction in pain and infections, addressing an unmet need for an underrepresented disease or illness, as well as pathway benefits of reducing length of stay, reduced recovery time and inpatient to outpatient treatment. In addition, there are often clear financial and sustainability benefits.
As a key value driver, supporting innovation is an important priority in both our Supplier Relationship and Development programmes. Our Supplier Relationship Managers, through enhanced engagement with segmented suppliers, connect stakeholders across organisational boundaries to create visibility of innovation and govern a pathway for category integration. Our newly formed Supplier Development team bring multi-sector end-to-end supply chain knowledge and experience, to work collaboratively with suppliers and manufacturers ensuring that we can realise the scale and potential that their innovations offer, in line with the standards our clinical experts, customers and patients alike require.
NHS Supply Chain have recently launched a brand-new Medical Technology Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for Innovative Products, allowing public sector organisations access to buy goods and services compliantly from a range of innovative Medical Technology categories.
Unlike traditional frameworks for the supply of goods and services, the DPS simplifies and overcomes barriers to entry that small-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) face when tendering to supply NHS trusts.
This will allow public sector organisations to buy goods and services compliantly from a range of innovative Medical Technology categories through an ‘open market’ solution, enabling buyers the opportunity to purchase from a pool of pre-qualified suppliers.
Additional benefits of the DPS include:
- A quicker, simpler approval process compared to standard framework agreements.
- DPS remains open to new suppliers throughout agreement period.
- Improved accessibility for SMEs
To aid suppliers and customers NHS Supply Chain have recently adopted the Innovation classifications definitions ensuring suppliers have one national definition across the NHS landscape:
Incremental improvement to a device that already exists within the health system that positively effects the delivery of care.
Transformative existing device applied to the health and care system for the first time or a novel application of an existing device which is already in the healthcare system.
Disruptive a novel device which meets an unmet need
- How does innovation feed into NHS Supply Chain’s strategy?
Product innovation is key to changing the direction of the NHS, and the challenges of access and adoption of unique products has been recognised across the national landscape. NHS Supply Chain has a key role in driving innovation through buying smart, supplying right, partnering expertly, and enabling our strategies through evolving and developing our future activities to support easier access and adoption.