Skip to main content

NHS Supply Chain Advances Inventory Management Deployment

14 January 2025

We’re accelerating progress with our collaborative ambitious Inventory Management Systems (IMS) and Point of Care Scanning (PoC) programme, with new deployments demonstrating the potential for improved patient safety, clinical productivity, and sustainability across the NHS.

Recent deployment successes

The programme has seen notable achievements in recent months:

  • Six trusts are now fully live with IMS, actively benefiting from both financial savings and productivity improvements.
  • Five trusts have successfully implemented PoC, enabling clinical teams to scan products to patients at the point of care. This creates a truly patient driven supply chain while enhancing patient safety.
  • Other trusts in this cohort are at various stages of deployment, with a steady schedule of go lives planned through 2025.
  • We recently hosted a marketplace learning day, fostering peer-to-peer knowledge exchange. This initiative allows local insights to be shared nationally and applied locally, ensuring the programme’s full potential is realised across the country.

These milestones underscore the NHS’s commitment to standardising processes, enhancing inventory management, and ensuring traceability at the point of care.

Person selecting medical products from shelving and baskets in storage room

Navigating deployment challenges

The programme has made significant strides, and these achievements have been accompanied by valuable learning opportunities:

  • Despite local financial constraints and limited resources, innovative approaches have been identified to maintain steady progress in rollouts.
  • The prioritisation of filling critical roles has created an opportunity to attract top talent, strengthening the implementation team.
  • Interface development and vendor capacity adjustments are paving the way for more streamlined and efficient deployment processes in the future.
  • Efforts to ensure consistent stakeholder buy-in and alignment of objectives are fostering stronger partnerships and shared goals, which are vital for long-term success.

Considerations for future deployments

To maintain momentum and ensure long-term success, the programme is focusing on:

  • Improving catalogue data quality.
  • Engaging with clinicians earlier in the process to drive trust participation.
  • Supporting process change at the local level, ensuring seamless adoption of IMS and PoC Scanning.
  • Defining clear success metrics, alongside strong governance structures to monitor outcomes.

A vision for transformation

The IMS and PoC Scanning programme is poised to revolutionise NHS operations by enabling waste reduction, optimising stock levels, and improving patient care. These initiatives, once fully implemented, will serve as a model for innovation in healthcare systems worldwide.

With the groundwork laid and deployments accelerating, the programme is a testament to the NHS’s dedication to putting patients first while achieving operational excellence.

What’s next?

The IMS deployment journey continues, with more trusts set to go live from January 2025. We’ll update regularly on our progress and the positive changes IMS and PoC are bringing to NHS trusts nationwide.

If you would like to learn more about the programme, please contact:

In-Trust Inventory Management Systems (IMS) Team

ims@supplychain.nhs.uk