House of Lords to host NHS SBS at celebratory event in recognition of its procurement efforts throughout the pandemic
NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) has been invited to attend a House of Lords reception in recognition of the vital contribution its procurement team has made during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extended to NHS SBS by the President of the Health Care Supply Association (HCSA), Lord Philip Hunt of Kings Heath PC OBE, the reception will celebrate the work NHS Procurement teams in the UK have undertaken for many years, particularly the last two in responding to the challenge of the pandemic.
The nomination is in recognition of NHS SBS’s procurement and supply chain excellence. Examples of its recent award winning achievements include the transactional procurement team’s swift processing of millions of pounds of additional orders as part of the service it provides to NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSEI) – including goods for the NHS Nightingale Hospital London – all whilst shifting to 100% remote working.
At the same time, NHS SBS supported organisations like Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust, which provides health and care services from more than 120 locations across the East of England. With NHS SBS embedded within the organisation to deliver an on-site specialist procurement service, the Trust was able to respond to Covid-19 quickly by introducing new systems and processes to keep essential services running for local people.
In Manchester, NHS SBS experts equipped the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West, partnering with Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust to source the equipment needed to open the emergency 648-bed hospital on time.
And, at Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust, members of the NHS SBS on-site team worked weekends and bank holidays to provide extra support to the hospital, including helping to increase its critical care bed capacity. One member of the team even moved into hospital accommodation to be on 24-hour call to take crucial deliveries. At the time, Caroline Stackhouse, Acting Deputy Chief Allied Health Professional at the Trust, said: “The NHS SBS procurement team has been exceptional. They have tried so hard to ensure we have the equipment we needed during the crisis, no matter how difficult it was to obtain, how long it took or how many hours they worked.”
The event at the House of Lords will be held on 29 June.
