New agreement will create
increased value and greater savings for London NHS trusts
BUYING SOLUTIONS News
Release (Ref. LPP12/03) issued by COI News Distribution Service on
Buying Solutions
and the NHS London Procurement Programme (LPP) have today signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will outline further
opportunities for joint working and collaboration, which will
provide increased value and significant cost benefits to
London's 71 NHS Trusts.
The LPP, now in its third year, is a programme to drive
collaboration among London's 71 NHS Trusts and help deliver
procurement savings and efficiencies. This MoU builds upon
savings already made by the LPP for NHS services in London and
will take advantage of the collective buying power and
opportunities available to the public sector through Buying Solutions.
An astonishing 20% of all NHS spend occurs in London, which is an
approximate spend of £5 billion on goods and services each year.
The LPP aims to deliver £80 million of savings back to the NHS by
April 2009, and this MoU is a vital step towards meeting this challenge.
The LPP has already worked with Buying Solutions on a number of
successful initiatives including IT hardware, software and mobile
telephony with planned areas for future collaboration including:
- Courier Services
- Learning and Development
- Consultancy
- Interim Staffing
- Face to Face Interpretation
Gary Welch, the LPP's Programme Director said today,
"The most important thing is that we continue to work
together to ensure that pan-government contracting is designed so
that the maximum benefit can be realised by NHS organisations.
Having achieved some successes in fostering collaboration between
trusts in London, tapping into pan-public sector collaborative
opportunities is an obvious development for the LPP."
"The MoU allows the LPP to gain access to the procurement
resource, expertise and pan-government framework agreements
available through Buying Solutions."
Richard Kirk, Sector Manager - Health at Buying Solutions added,
"This new MoU will provide us with a platform for much closer
working between Buying Solutions and the NHS in London. The
opportunities created by this MoU will allow the LPP and the
London NHS to maximise the savings benefits their aggregated spend
can deliver through our public sector framework agreements."
"Buying Solutions will also benefit from working with the
LPP and the London NHS by being able to draw on their experience
and expertise to ensure that our future procurements will meet the
needs of the London NHS."
ENDS
About Buying Solutions
Buying Solutions is an Executive Agency of the Office of
Government Commerce in the Treasury. We are the national
procurement partner for UK public services.
We have extensive expertise in procurement, with over 500,000
products and services delivered through over 600 suppliers, in
ICT, property and office solutions, energy, travel and
professional services.
Our EU-compliant, benchmarked framework agreements and other
procurement arrangements enable organisations to deliver improved
value for money in their commercial activities. We also provide
expertise and professional support to our customers.
More details are available on the website: http://www.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk
Media contact:
Ben Heppenstall
ben.heppenstall@buyingsolutions.gsi.gov.uk