The NHS paid £17 for a pizza base.

[JosephineCD]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17755552

This is ridiculous and shows what a gigantic money pit the NHS is and where Labour's crazy spending on the service all went. People that oppose changes to the NHS are being ridiculous IMO, or they have a vested interest in things staying the same.

Years ago hospitals were told to set up procurement departments. My friend runs the one at our local hospital trust. She was saying it is the most frustrating job in the world as she KNOWS she could buy stuff at half the price, but is forced to stick to set suppliers.

I bet there's loads of kickbacks going to the people who decide the suppliers. It's disgusting.

No proof of the 'kickbacks', but we always suspect it must be so. System makes no sense otherwise.

We have a similar tying with our procurement( local government). Plus it takes longer to buy the stuff. No just nipping to the shop.

With train tickets buying through procurement they are more expensive + staff used to use their own railcards to get the cheaper but it can't happen now either.

It's the same in large corporates too really.

I have the same situation where I'm being forced to pay practically 6 months salary to a company who is our global preferred supplier to do about 2 days worth of work.

It's ridiculous.

The MoD procurement teams make the NHS ones look positively thrifty....

proves that theyve got the money to pay those unemployed jobseekers working in those hospitals instead of having them on workfare.

That was in 2011 - so surely the Con Dems could have sorted out??

Lol cogito, my sentiments exactly.

Didn't we do this before under the heading £15 for a light bulb?

Sorted it out? Why no. Preferred suppliers are preferred suppliers. To change those would cause the entire fabric of civilisation to be destroyed.

And I don't think there are any kickbacks, tbh. Which makes, frankly, even less sense.

"surely the Con Dems could have sorted out??"

Any attempt to reform the NHS along commercial lines... and procurement is something that cries out for a more commercial treatment... have been howled down by the 'selling our birthright' crowd.

Is this actual "fact" though? Seems a bit strange when we are told we cannot order pens/paper for record keeping etc.

There was a R4 'File on 4' programme not so long ago on the topic. Listen again Part of the transcript is ... "trusts bought twenty-one different types of A4 paper. In terms of rubber gloves, 652 different types. In terms of canulas, somewhere over 1,700 different canulas." Huge overlaps of identical or almost identical supply products bought at wildly differing prices ranging from 10 - 50% more expensive.

My mum is a Coeliac and is a pensioner, she doesn't get any of that shit, because they have no gluten the binding agent is sugar, it's all cake really she'd rather live without because it really isn't a usable replacement, why the hell would you need that shit prescribed?

Whats wrong with rice, maize flour, fruit, veg and meats/fish?

I honestly don't understand why thy are even giving prescriptions for that shit it's unnecessary

"Years ago hospitals were told to set up procurement departments. My friend runs the one at our local hospital trust. She was saying it is the most frustrating job in the world as she KNOWS she could buy stuff at half the price, but is forced to stick to set suppliers."

Your friend is running a procurement department but doesn't know how to run a most economically advantageous tender? Really?