NHS needs it's own Amazon.

[Bollindger]

I often wondered why this has never been done.
If medical supplies were brought and stored and dispatched on an Amazon style system, that any health care facilities could access , the NHS could save Millions, even down to light bulbs and cheap paracetamol, after all if Tesco can do Paracetamol for 50p so could the NHS. Also Amazon can deliver overnight, so that would mean Hospitals would have to carry less stock.

the BNF says it costs £2:40 for 100 paracetamol tablets. So about 38p for the equivalent of a 16 pack you’d get in Tesco

I forgot to mention that the Procurement schedules for NHS is also shared access with MoD Procurement. So the price discounts extend to all the military medical services supply and service needs as well. They can order for deployments and do forward shipping to deployed locations as well.

But as discovereads says above that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s how much they pay as it will have to be ordered through procurement, be delivered to pharmacy and dispensed to the wards. Anyone can access the BNF online these days I think (it may just open for me cause I’ve already registered for something!) and that tells you the prices of all drugs but the supply chain costs are added on to that

Isn't that whole point.
If every item that the Health sector uses was purchased by 1 contract, the prices would go down, allowing it to then just be ordered from the centralised warehouse would mean each Hospital for example would not have to carry a stock of essential items, it would just be delivered every 24 hours, and they could keep an essential item, and order it for the next day to replace it as soon as it was used. If amazon can send me a pencil by 12 the next day, why can't the NHS use this same style system?
Things that are easy to make and have a massive mark up , they could produce themselves.

Yes I do understand the end costs of things also include peoples time and also the cost of depreciating assets, but they could making savings using this system, as you would no longer need a purchasing department and accounting departments would not be billed for supplies as it could just be taken off the budget the Government give each hospital,rather than the actual money being given to the hospital.

It's called nhs supply chain 😃. Works well!!

😂😂

I'll suggest this to my friend who is Head of Procurement at one of the large London Trusts, I'm sure he will be incredibly grateful and kick himself for not thinking of it earlier

Nhs prices for drugs reimbursed through prescription s are freely available on the drug tariff website.

we pay really low prices in this country whether it’s through prescription or privately. Check out how much things cost abroad. Pharmaceutical companies have to be licensed, have indemnity, have strict quality control and you can still buy 16 paracetamol in a blister packet for 50p- pretty amazing really

was hoping a former supermarket buyer was reading 😆

@sallysparrow157 thank you

If amazon can send me a pencil by 12 the next day, why can't the NHS use this same style system?

But the NHS can send an item by 12 the next day. You're implying the procurement system isn't working - but it is.

They used to do this, until the government decided to outsource to private companies to make it cheaper. It did not make it cheaper than having an internal bank of stock.

You have oversimplified the supply chain process. Yes would probably be fine for non specialised or non expiry dated products but those are things you can buy from Amazon anyway. Things like cardiac test strips cost hundreds of pounds each and have very short expiry dates and are made to order so have to be forecasted for. There isn’t going to be a warehouse full of these just incase. Then there’s things like infusion pumps which have to be calibrated before shipping. This also takes time and requires information of where they are going.
The current supply chain process works fine as it is

Bnf is nothing to do with hospital costs.
with a few exceptions the price you see in the bnf is the entire cost reimbursed to the pharmacy by the nhs. They get around a £1 dispensing fee on top which covers everything/ packaging, professional fees, advice, delivery, collection. Cost to nhs is literally that price plus dispensing fee for a routine item. The majority of nhs care happens in the community and not in hospitals

OP its ok suggesting things but you really seem to have no idea how things work currently! Which is pretty crucial . I find this happens a lot. The idea that professionals have no idea of how to do their job.

You can’t have 1 contract for the millions of items and services needed by the NHS. No provider exists that can do all that and even if one did, it would be an illegal monopoly. And when we have a monopoly prices go up massively because you’re a captive consumer. You’re also locked in to that supplier and what if they do some really illegal shit and get barred from government procurement? You then have months with NO SUPPLIER at all which would be complete catastrophe. It’s stupid and ultimately costs more in money and lives as we are talking healthcare to put all your eggs in one basket,

Did you miss the posts? The hospitals and pharmacies already get 2 deliveries every 24hrs of exactly what they need (precalculated and automatically ordered using inventory software and algorithms) which is FAR superior to your idea of doing a manual order of everything you need for the next day and one delivery every 24hrs.

The NHS also has a system to order and deliver urgent items- blood, surgical kits within HOURS. Much faster than your Amazon send me a pencil by noon tomorrow idea.

you would no longer need a purchasing department and accounting departments would not be billed for supplies as it could just be taken off the budget the Government give each hospital,rather than the actual money being given to the hospital.

You can’t do this with public money. Just hand £2bn to your NHS Amazon big corporation as a prepaid tab and trust them to do the accounting as it’s spent on orders. Someone HAS to do the accounting, and it’s against the law as well as the public interest to ensure its civil servants doing the accounting instead of writing a blank cheque to a massive corporation and just trusting them to do the figures correctly and never double bill or over-charge. And you will always need a purchasing department to negotiate prices down and audit the suppliers to ensure they meet legal (ie labour laws) and ethical standards.

It is interesting to learn of how the system works, and wonder what advances people who do work in this department thing need improving.

Someone HAS to do the accounting, and it’s against the law as well as the public interest to ensure its civil servants doing the accounting instead of writing a blank cheque to a massive corporation and just trusting them to do the figures correctly and never double bill or over-charge.

Sorry wrote too fast, against the law to not ensure it’s civil servants doing the accounting for public funds.

Didn't they mean it would be cheaper for you if you bought it rather than paying the prescription charge?

To be honest, I do see your point. There is huge wastage and overpayment in public areas. If people were honest you’d admit that. For example, education, the military. Everything is procured for you via contracts which are sometimes ridiculous.

However, these jobs justify lots of money to people in suits.

Btw Amazon is actually quite expensive. I pay about £8 a month for prime, and like most people probably order 3-4 times a month and watch an occasional film. The next day delivery pencils are far more expensive than going to a shop. If everyone needed daily orders the cost would rocket.
it’s not a particularly cost effective model. The delivery isn’t amazingly reliable either

I mean 1 contract per item.
If I buy a roll it costs me 50p. If buy 4 it is £1. if I buy 12 it is £2,50.
If i am using that many rolls, then I purchase an oven and make the rolls myself and have lower cost per item and simply hire someone else to make the items ending up with rolls costing me 10p each .

@Hardbackwriter cheaper for them

Yes Amazon prime is a bit of a fix, most things that can get delivered next day or same day for "free" are cheaper without prime despite paying the additional fee for prime.

The drug ordering is incredibly specialised and cost efficient to the nhs. If anything nhs need to stop bargaining so hard as it’s putting community pharmacies and generic drug manufacturers out of business which obviously causes supply problems for patients.
to improve? Perhaps more investment in fraud prevention and tougher penalties. The extra investment may not be paid back though

The actual price the NHS paid for parecetomel (in 2018 but I doubt it has changed much) is in this document www.panmerseyapc.nhs.uk/media/2045/cost_comparison_charts_-_april_2018.pdf
It works out at a penny per 500mg tablet, which is very cheap.

I also have Prime. yes so I pay the £8 a month.
I order a £2 pack of pencils. it will arrive on Friday.
It is 10 miles to my nearest store, so 20 miles return journey, my car does 40 miles to the gallon , so that is say £3 in petrol, it cost £1 to park and it takes up a morning to buy the goods, plus I spend on extras while out, so my £2 pencils have not almost cost me £10.
So now my prime has paid it's way just on 1 purchase.