Healthcare procurement in the Public Sector

Who makes healthcare procurements in the public sector?

Healthcare is managed differently across the UK, with healthcare-related procurements conducted by commissioning groups, councils, boards, and other approved contracting authorities.

Looking through our tender categories, you will see contracts published by the Department of Health and Social Care (top of the healthcare hierarchy) to independent contractors.

Social Value

Contracting authorities need to consider the social, economic, and environmental impact of procurement decisions.

• Help maintain a healthy market by designing strategies and contracts that help to remove barriers to entry, take advantage of innovations, and promote competition.
• Make procurement decisions which contribute to the UK government’s legally binding target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and prioritising opportunities to reduce waste.
• Create a more diverse supply chain to deliver the contract, which will better support start-ups, small and medium-sized businesses and VCSEs in doing business on public sector contracts.
• Focus on strategies which will deliver lower cost and/or higher quality goods and services, while also encouraging increased productivity and the adoption of innovation.

Improved Procurement Processes

Contracting authorities should ensure the best processes are used and value for money is achieved.

• Use DMAs (Delivery Model Assessments) ensure evidence-based processes are used to determine the best delivery model for projects.
• Conduct earlier risk assessments to mitigate these before construction begins, and ensure each part knows which risks they are responsible for.
• Improve safety, enable innovation, reduce costs, and produce more sustainable outcomes by encouraging suppliers and buyers to adopt the UK Building Information Management (BIM) Framework.
• Establish the best pricing based on the delivery of outputs, work value or supplier performance - price should reflect the level of certainty or risk around the scope and requirement.
• Assess the economic and financial standing of suppliers to safeguard the delivery of projects.
• Mitigate the impact of insolvency by asking suppliers to provide resolution planning information in the form of a Service Continuity Plan (previously known as Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans).

While these policies focus more on contracting authorities’ internal processes, it is vital that you know what buyers are looking for so that you can avoid misunderstandings by displaying vital information in the correct format.