20 May 2011
The Department of Health has been challenged to clarify how it intends to secure £1.2bn in procurement savings from hospital trusts over which it has no control.
Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, today raised concerns about improving buying in the hospital sector when all trusts are due to be given foundation status by 2014 and will therefore be independent of the Department of Health.
She said: ‘The department should specifically spell out how, in the new NHS landscape in which foundation trusts act independently, trusts will be motivated to deliver collectively the £1.2bn savings which could be secured – and who will be accountable.’
She said it was ‘unacceptable’ that NHS money was being wasted paying over the odds for basic commodities such as paper and surgical gloves.
Hodge was speaking today as the PAC published its report on procurement by NHS trusts. This is a follow-up to the National Audit Office’s February report, which found that at least £500m a year could be saved through more efficient purchasing.
The PAC said the Department of Health’s procurement model bore little relation to the ‘complex reality’, which involved a profusion of different bodies.
‘There has not been a culture of efficient procurement in the NHS. The lack of data makes it difficult for trust boards to challenge managers on the efficiency of procurement and there has not been sufficient control over procurement practices,’ the committee said.
‘At a time when all trusts are required to make efficiency savings – 4% in 2011/12 alone – they should seek to achieve as much of these as possible from improvements in procurement.’
