Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) is one of the largest and most renowned Trusts in NHS England with a commitment to deliver care which is kind, safe and excellent. The Trust is the heart of a leading Biomedical Research Centre and is one of the five Academic Health Science Centres. At the time of the project, the Trust employed c. 7k people, delivered care for 70k inpatients and 460k outpatients, operating 1k beds across 52 wards and delivering 40k surgical procedures. CUH’s turnover was c. £660m, of which c. 30% was non-pay.
Our consultants were engaged to deliver a Procurement Cost Reduction project followed by a full-scale Procurement and Supply Chain Transformation to equip CUH with an enhanced level of capability that would sustain the Trust’s ability to deliver value over the long term.
INSIGHT
Successful Healthcare Procurement Transformation requires a phased approach to 1) identify, quantify and prioritise the value potential, 2) deliver the value and 3) sustain the value.
We brought a number of methodologies, tools and experiences to support the client through each stage of the Healthcare Procurement Transformation journey, including a proven Procurement Transformation approach that addresses all areas of capability (People & Organisation, Process and Systems), Healthcare-relevant Category Intelligence (client experience, market studies etc.) and real world experience of what works and what doesn’t.
ACTION
We completed a full Spend Opportunity Assessment to identify and prioritise areas of opportunity: The assessment looked at all categories of spend including clinical and non-clinical goods and services, low to high clinical preference. Categories were profiled and benchmarked, key requirement understood, supplier markets evaluated and strategies developed. Recommended strategies were taken forward in a wave sourcing programme that would yield significant results once implemented.
Our consultants led the delivery of a wave sourcing programme focussed on key Clinical Goods and Services including Sutures, Laparoscopic products, Orthopaedic Implants, Clinical Managed Services, IT Products, Soft Facilities Management Service, Catering and Laboratory Consumables.
We led the implementation of a new organisation including redefinition of roles and recruitment of new team, new governance and processes, a number of new Procurement and Supply Chain Systems, including Catalogue and Inventory Management systems and an Assisted Buying Solution.
RESULTS
We delivered recurrent incremental savings averaging 5% of spend under management in each year of a three year programme. Within this, savings as a percentage of addressed category spend were frequently double digits.
Our consultants equipped CUH with sector leading Procurement capability (People & Organisation, Process and Systems) to sustain and find new savings.
CUH was highly commended in the 2014 Health Service Journal Awards for improving efficiency with technology for an aspect of the Transformation Programme.
Magdalena Borgedahl