Procurement

Enabling healthcare and protecting our workforce during a global pandemic

Adaptable, collaborative, innovative – three words that aptly describe our National Procurement (NP) team who have once again demonstrated the immeasurable value they add to Scotland’s NHS – this time through their response to COVID-19.

NP is Scotland’s largest procurement organisation, buying and supplying just about every item you can think of to help keep hospitals and health facilities running. From x-ray machines and bed linen to syringes, NP procure and distribute the millions of vital supplies our NHS needs to care for patients across the country. The team have been at the forefront of Scotland’s COVID-19 response, working 24/7 to ensure our frontline health and social care colleagues have everything they need to safely manage COVID-19.

Our people have stepped up in a big way during this crisis, embracing new ways of working and refocusing their skills to quickly and effectively undertake new and complex challenges.

PPE distribution
Working in partnership with the Scottish Government, local authorities and social care across the country, NP has significantly grown its national distribution network during Scotland’s COVID-19 response – enabling us to rapidly extend PPE distribution to Scotland’s health and social care sector.

As of September 2020, we’ve delivered over 522 million items of PPE to health and social care throughout Scotland, as well as vast quantities of critical ICU and clinical care items. Our extended sourcing and supply efforts have included:

• support for primary care – delivering PPE to primary care practitioners including GPs and community pharmacists, as well as the necessary supplies for the safe restarting of health services like dentistry and optometry
• supplying acute hospitals – delivering increased supplies directly to hospitals
• an online PPE portal – our digital and procurement colleagues launched an online portal to help health boards order PPE and access real-time delivery data
• support for social care – collaborating to establish a direct delivery network of 48 social care hubs throughout Scotland, to deliver PPE to the social care sector
• supporting the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) – delivering an emergency PPE stockpile to pre-agreed SAS hubs for distribution

Since March, our warehouse and distribution network has expanded far beyond our National Distribution Centre to meet Scotland’s needs. We’ve added a 120,000 sq ft storage warehouse and have over 375,000 sq ft of storage space (the equivalent of six football pitches) across five locations. This expanded network helps ensure that the right quantities of stock, including PPE, can be supplied to the right place at the right time.

Operating this expanded network would not be possible without our team of warehouse operatives. 240 people work around the clock to make sure that our frontline workers have the equipment they need to provide Scotland’s communities with the care that they require. Responding to COVID-19 has required our warehouse operatives to move from a 24/5 model to a 24/7 model in order to keep up with demand and they have risen to that challenge. Indicative of their success is their “on time and full” rate of 97.7% and stock
availability of 98%.

Manufacturing and sourcing
With our partners the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise and others, we’re strengthening Scotland’s supply chain resilience. By developing new and existing supply chains, we’ve helped increase the volume of supplies such as PPE, being manufactured in Scotland and the amount being supplied from abroad. Our supply strategy has had several strands, to help us increase vital supplies. We’ve:

• continued sourcing from existing strong supply chains
• secured short-term contracts to help us meet surplus demand, extending PPE supply to all areas of health and social care
• built strong foundations in Scotland that are strengthening Scotland’s supply chain and resilience, working closely with partners

Between April and June, we chartered flights from China to carry essential PPE and NHS supplies directly to Glasgow Prestwick Airport. This included over 100 million face masks, infusion pumps for Intensive Care Units and virus-collecting kits for use in health laboratories.

In partnership with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government, our NP team continues to work alongside Scottish businesses who’ve innovated, invested, and developed manufacturing processes to help deliver critical supply to support Scotland’s response. This
has included establishing entirely new supply chains for items such as PPE gowns.

We’ve also worked with businesses to internationally source and supply approved COVID-19 swab sample testing kits, and new testing equipment to support critically ill patients in remote locations.

In a time of wider economic challenges, these partnership efforts to build strong supply chain foundations in Scotland are not only delivering supplies, they’re also helping to support and sometimes create jobs in Scotland’s economy. Our recent announcement of a £53m order with Dumfriesshire-based supplier Alpha Solway will see the creation of around 200 jobs, as well as securing supply of PPE masks and visors until summer 2021.

None of this would have been possible without the collective effort of our people, whose hard work, skill and dedication enable NHSScotland to protect health and save lives during these unprecedented times.

More info
Watch our videos - The Power of Procurement and Series of 10 flights bringing millions of vital PPE items to Scotland.

About NSS
A connected partner at the heart of Scotland’s NHS, NSS provides national solutions which improve the health and wellbeing of the people of Scotland. Find out more about us by visiting our website or follow us on Twitter.