This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Overcoming challenges in equipping Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital
Equipping the new £68 million Manchester Major Trauma Hospital faced significant logistical challenges due to external factors like Brexit and the global microchip shortage. Partnering with NHS SBS, the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust effectively managed costs and procurement, ensuring the hospital was fully operational with specialised equipment and minimal disruption.
- End to end service – from business case to handover
- Cost savings of c. £2.8m
- Sourced, procured, delivered and installed over 3800 items, ensuring compliance and efficiency
- On site NHS SBS’s dedicated project manager allowing the trust to focus on other activities.
“The SBS team’s in-depth knowledge of equipment in acute healthcare settings was invaluable, particularly given the acuity of patients that will be treated at the GMMTH… The support from NHS SBS has been exemplary. I would not hesitate to partner with them again.”
Jon Nickson
GMMTH Programme Director
The Challenge
Dedicated trauma centres – such as the new £68 million Greater Manchester Major Trauma Hospital at Salford Royal – help clinicians make the most of each precious minute after injury.
Every element of the new hospital – from the extra-large lifts to the multi-functional operating theatres – is designed for maximum efficiency.
But equipping such specialist environments is challenging, with external forces like Brexit, the war in Ukraine and the global microchip shortage disrupting supply chains, leading to increased costs and adding as much as 20 weeks to delivery times.
In addition, much equipment needs specialist out-of-hours delivery and complex installation.
The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust chose to partner with NHS Shared Business Services to run a full capital equipment programme for their new hospital.
The Solution
By reviewing the equipment for the Full Business Case, engaging with clinicians, drawing up compliant specifications, negotiating with suppliers and using the most cost-effective framework agreements, NHS SBS was able to make the equipping the new hospital more affordable.
NHS SBS’s support started with reviewing the costs of the final business case for the capital equipment. Originally estimated at £13 million, the team used their procurement and healthcare expertise to reduce this to £10.2 million. Working closely with colleagues at Salford Royal, they were able to validate all equipment costs through reviewing the architect’s data and using benchmarking and real-world pricing to provide a robust total forecast.
After completing this, the team moved onto procuring the equipment. Over 3800 individual items were purchased, with NHS SBS raising over 150 purchase orders for items ranging from patient furniture to major equipment such as CT, MRI and X-ray machines.
Some of the equipment needed was highly specialised. The GMMTH houses the UK’s first hybrid trauma theatre, enabling surgeons to treat a patient with (for example) internal bleeding and a head injury in the same place, without needing to transfer them between theatres.
The Result
The NHS SBS team project managed the delivery and installation of all capital equipment.
Working with the trust, NHS SBS scheduled and supervised more than 50 co-ordinated deliveries to site, sometimes out-of-hours. NHS SBS’s dedicated project manager was on site to supervise at all times, allowing the trust to focus on other activities.
Patient monitoring and anaesthetic machines were particularly challenging, as they needed bulk deliveries, floor space to assemble and a complex installation by a team of experts. The NHS SBS team worked closely with the trust’s medical devices services and estates teams to design an effective delivery and installation programme.
This included coping with a delayed handover where all deliveries were rebooked and reprogrammed at minimal cost to the trust.
As part of the service, NHS SBS ensured all equipment was delivered to final point of use and installed to specification, with all packaging and waste removed and the rooms signed off by the client as ready for use.
Our Capital Equipment Services
We help NHS organisations and systems, including Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), achieve their transformation objectives by providing bespoke procurement support and specialist capital equipment services.
Our end-to-end, flexible solution can support procurement from enabling works, (including refurbishments, demolition works and new buildings), to capital equipment services, to sourcing and project managing equipment installation for hospital buildings. This enables us to effectively support major programmes, including the critical New Hospitals Programme.
Other case studies
Employment Services
Co-creating a unique payroll service
Digital Innovation
Robotic Process Automation
Procurement
