Delivering innovative solutions to the healthcare & lifescience industry
Risk management processes play a key role in building the resilience a business needs to operate smoothly during disruption. This is particularly the case in pharmaceutical and MedTech businesses, in which supply chains are often complex and services are multi-layered. Disruption can come in many forms, including challenges caused by the rapid growth to regulatory …
Preparing for the challenges of tomorrow with robust continuity planningRead More
As recent headlines have highlighted, the NHS backlog in routine operations and procedures has reached worrying heights during the pandemic. Data from NHS England shows that currently more than 5 million people in England are waiting for hospital treatment, with 3.63 million fewer elective surgeries carried out between April 2020 and May 2021. Meeting this …
What is being proposed? In light of rapid digital advances triggered by the pandemic, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) is developing a more sustainable and long-term data strategy. This strategy is designed to support the digital transformation needed to improve patient care across the health and care sectors. The new strategy has …
Akeso & Co’s view on the Department of Health & Social Care’s draft data policyRead More
Managed Equipment Services (MES) can support in meeting a number of objectives for NHS providers -reducing capital spend, managing risk and improving service delivery, but scoping them and contracting for them can be challenging. During this webinar, Beth Loudon and Chris Robson from Akeso & Company were joined by Jonathan Hayden and Rachel Whitaker from …
Contracting Managed Equipment Services – A unique legal and procurement perspectiveRead More
The UK may have left the European Union (EU) with a trade deal, but for those involved in Healthcare supply chains that does not mean it is back to business as usual. Although the worst-case scenario of a no deal has been avoided, there are still challenges for those tasked with maintaining the continuous supply …
Adapting your supply chain to life outside the European UnionRead More
At a time of constrained NHS budgets and competing financial demands, it’s no surprise NHS managers are turning to managed equipment services (MES). But implementing them isn’t easy. In this article, we dig deeper into some of the challenges you might face when implementing an MES and how you can overcome them. An innovative commercial …
The Coronavirus pandemic has tested supply chains to their limits over the past few months. And with annual winter pressures and a second wave speeding through the country, we need to make sure we’ve learned everything we can from 2020, in order to avoid patients carrying the consequences of a broken supply chain. The disruption …
Building a resilient supply chain – lessons from the pandemicRead More
An omnipresent COVID virus and an impending recession could have significant repercussions on the UK’s private health care sector. A prolonged recovery is likely to impact both providers and insurers. Where are we now? In March, access to independent providers of healthcare in the UK was effectively suspended as capacity was re-purposed to support the NHS’ response to COVID-19. Almost overnight an ‘at cost’ reimbursement model replaced …
The UK Private Healthcare Market: What does the future hold?Read More
Michael Porter’s original vision was an ambitious one; ‘a strategy that will fix healthcare’. In his book which introduced the concept of ‘Value-Based Healthcare’ (VBH), entitled ‘Redefining Health Care’, Porter laid out what he believed would be a new way of thinking. In doing so, he made the case for delivering the best patient outcomes …
When it comes to innovation in healthcare, it is all too easy to lose sight of the progress made and where we have come from. Back in 2014, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) mandated that all NHS trusts in England must adopt GS1. This led to Scan4Safety and, subsequently, the launch of …
As with any level of national preparation, the uncertainty of the coming weeks poses a headache for those tasked with maintaining our healthcare supply chain. With only a matter of a possible seven weeks to go until the 31st October 2019 deadline to leave the EU, there are a number of risks and unknowns organisations …
Brexit: Pragmatic steps to managing supply chain uncertaintyRead More
The digitalisation of the NHS is a longstanding and well documented challenge facing healthcare organisations. Following the NHS Long term plan, which outlined the key role data and digital technology will play in delivering improvements across the NHS, NHSX (denoted NHSX) was born. Launched by Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, the joint organisation for data and …
Ensuring continuity of supply in healthcare whilst the UK exits from the EU has brought the supply chain into new focus for many providers across the NHS. Progress made following the Carter report and Scan4Safety initiatives is to be lauded and has guided development in the healthcare supply chain. However, there are a number of …
Harnessing healthcare efficiencies using three supply chain conceptsRead More
The term ‘disruptive’ often has negative connotations, but when it comes to innovative technology in healthcare, it is overwhelmingly positive. While there is little doubt the health and social care system will see considerable clinical and operational gains from the implementation of emerging innovation, it still has a long way to go to be considered …
Leveraging the value of innovation & disruptive technology in healthcareRead More
The Shelford Group is the largest collaboration of hospitals in the NHS, consisting of 10 leading multi-specialty academic healthcare organisations employing over 100k people and with a turnover of over £10bn. It was formed in 2011 to share practice in patient care, clinical research and education, and to represent the NHS and engage with key …
Delivery of a Collaborative Procurement Programme for the Shelford GroupRead More
Akeso&Co have been awarded ‘recommended’ status in the Healthcare & Life Sciences sector of the Financial Times’ UK’s Leading Management Consultants 2019 survey. We received “a significant number of recommendations from peers and clients” and thank our clients that contributed to this success. As a team we are delighted to be included on the list …
Our conversations with NHS Chief Pharmacists around their top challenges and issues almost inevitably end up on the topic of medicines shortages. It is, therefore, interesting to see this topic hit the headlines today: “Pharmacists warn of a surge in shortage of common medicines” (link to BBC News article here). As with many news headlines …
Following a 30% growth in England over the previous five years, Diabetes medicines spend exceeded £1bn in the financial year 2017/18. Almost 20% of the £1bn spend was on ‘Diagnostic and monitoring’ devices, which mainly consists of Test Strips for Blood Glucose Monitors used in self-monitoring by patients. Our research and client experience indicates that …
Akeso&Co have enjoyed working with the NHS genomics service through our Diagnostics, Pathology & Therapy Services and Technologies to develop a competitive approach for the strategic sourcing of genomics consumables. Read the full article.
Akeso&Co is among a group of 107 management consulting firms the NHS has selected to assist the institution’s complex strategic, organsiation and transformational changes over the next five years. As well as the world’s largest professional services and strategy consulting firms, the list also features a number of boutique and healthcare specialists. Read the full …
Consultancy.uk: NHS selects 107 consultancies for Management Consultancy FrameworkRead More
Akeso&Co is tasked with delivering savings from purchasing “diagnostic equipment and associated consumables” for the NHS, after winning a £9m contract from the Department of Health and Social Care in January. Managing director Chris Robson told HSJ one of his main priorities during the next five years is to make it easier for the NHS …
Health Service Journal: Purchasing chief promises ‘route to innovation’ for suppliersRead More
Akeso&Co have helped to deliver a pioneering collaboration project between nine acute trusts in West Yorkshire on a pharmaceutical network that could achieve efficiency savings estimated at more than £17m. Akeso&Co supported the opportunity assessment, solution design and outline business case to deliver forecasted one-off savings of £4.5m by creating a central medicines store, and …
Health Service Journal: Nine trusts plan pharma network to save £17mRead More
The Management Consultancies Association is delighted to announce that Akeso & Company is the latest management consulting firm to join the Association. Specialising in the field of Healthcare and Life Sciences, Akeso & Company is an independent management consultancy offering experience and expertise in Procurement, Supply Chain and Healthcare Operations, delivering high value and lasting …
In the Health Service Journal in July, management consultant Chris Robson, who works with NHS trusts on purchasing, predicted the cost could be up to £900m. When we talk this month, he says things have not changed much, around a billion pounds per year, he says. But he is keen to stress that is a “worst case …
In any acute hospital, ordering and preparing materials for scheduled and emergency procedures is a key process which traditionally takes up a large proportion of clinical time. By pioneering the use of RFID technology to centralise and streamline the management of theatre supplies, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (CUH) have freed up time for clinical …
RFID Discovery: Case Study Theatre Kitting with RFIDRead More
Brexit could result in an extra £900m bill for the NHS as suppliers hike their prices to protect themselves against a weakening pound. The currency turmoil triggered by Britain’s decision to leave the EU could add a further 18 per cent to the efficiency target set out in the Carter review, according to NHS procurement …
Health Service Journal: Brexit – Fall in the pound could create extra £900m bill for NHSRead More
Gartner’s seventh annual Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 ranking recognizes companies across the healthcare value chain that demonstrate leadership in improving patient outcomes and lowering costs. Leaders are showing progress by aligning to patient care, company strategy and future revenue models. Read the full article.
Gartner: The Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 for 2015Read More
Despite wondrous advances in medicine and technology, health care regularly fails at the fundamental job of any business: to reliably deliver what its customers need. In the face of ever-increasing complexity, the hard work and best intentions of individual physicians can no longer guarantee efficient, high-quality care. Fixing health care will require a radical transformation, …
Harvard Business Review: Engaging Doctors in the Health Care RevolutionRead More
