Working with NHS Supply Chain to reduce continence care costs
Wednesday 6 July 2011
When reduced budgets meet the hard demographic choice of quality patient care - NHS Supply Chain can help.
Increasing numbers of referrals from a rapidly ageing population relying on continence products to maintain independent daily living left Central and Eastern Cheshire NHS Trust with a decision caring staff did not want to make.
Either they could close down its Continence Home Delivery Service or risk a massive overspend in the budget. Instead they came to see NHS Supply Chain’s specialist Home Delivery team and asked for a solution which would allow them to keep serving people in their community and provide options to control the costs.
It was a challenge NHS Supply Chain relished because collaborative working is at the heart of its philosophy.
Those ideas included:-
- Clear and accurate analysis of spend and volume data to highlight areas of both best practice and those requiring additional clinical focus.
- A flexible operational structure to enable a cost effective delivery solution to be developed
- Joint training programme throughout Nursing Homes to ensure patients received product most appropriate to their needs.
Head of its Community Service, Stacie Croxton, explained: “At the end of the day we all want the same thing – to deliver high quality patient care in the community at the best possible price so as to improve patient outcomes.”
“Working in partnership with the trust and their preferred product manufacturer SCA Hygiene Products, we provided the trust with a number of options and rapidly implemented a number of ways for them to control product and service costs, enabling a 5% year on year reduction in overall spend”.
Trusts who would like help to meet similar challenges can contact the NHS Supply Chain’s Home Delivery Service on 01924 328528 or 01924 328501, or look at the Home Delivery Service Brochure online at http://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/product-news/publications/brochures/