Meet the Wider Clinical Community

The 35 registered healthcare professionals (nurses and allied health professionals) within the Commercial Directorate, operate in a matrix style way of working, within five areas across the organisation. They have many years’ experience in front line NHS services, and their specialist backgrounds were sought to specifically align to the portfolio offerings within their categories. This range of skills gives breadth and strength to the teams, meaning they can offer a better service to our clinical and non clinical colleagues across the NHS. 

The Innovation teams’ belief is that product innovation is the key to changing the direction of the NHS, and they help to navigate the challenges of access and adoption of unique products across the national landscape. The team consists of an Innovation Lead and two Innovation Specialists, both of whom are registered Nurses and both of whom have worked in a variety of clinical settings in both Primary and secondary care, from diagnostics procedures to Phase II Clinical trials.

Within the Medical Technologies team, the Clinical Engagement Managers are heavily data focussed; they work to establish a detailed engagement process to help the NHS navigate their way through the contracting process. This means that informed decisions can be made in which the trust personnel look to establish operational efficiencies and standardised practice within an NHS trust or across an ICS collaboration. 

The Rehabilitation and Community teams’ ethos is patient/end user centric; identifying the need(s), quantifying variances in licensed and intended use, ensuring products meet these requirements, and are safe, and fit for purpose/user groups. Their role provides increased confidence in product offerings; recognising how products are used in practice, and what functional variances are required to fulfil care delivery. Their operational work includes product specifications, changes to practice, national directives/guidance, in order to build robust framework offerings, ensuring that provision is always centred with the patient/user group at the core.

Made up of 16 clinical members with backgrounds including nursing, physiotherapy, operating theatres and clinical procurement, the Medical and Surgical clinical team encompass various clinical environments over many decades such as wards, theatres and outpatients. They support in the development of product specifications, strategy insights and alternatives. They also create expert groups to support alignment with business objectives by providing clinical insight into category management, partnering expertly to identify Value Based Procurement and innovation opportunities, interpreting the data through a clinical eye, so that data led decisions have clinical assurance.

As a registered nurse with over 25 years of experience working in the NHS together, the Product Assurance Manager within the Centre of Excellence uses this insight to influence the assurance process that defines standards around a frameworks’ scope, mitigation of complaints and safety issues, Health Inequalities, Human Factors, end user and patient engagement level of engagement, clinical effectiveness and subsequently ensuring the final specification is fit for purpose.

The Patient Safety team within NHS Supply chain resides within the Resilience function of the Supply Chain Division. As patient safety is a defining principle of how we do business, they work cross-functionally across the entire business. They are made up of two registered nurses. Reactively they are responsible for risk assessing all product complaints submitted through our complaint reporting portal, proactively using the information to learn and enable NHS Supply chain to design out any product specification failures to future procurement.

Overall, they are responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing patient safety strategies within NHS Supply chain that align and enhance patient safety and optimize clinical outcomes within the healthcare supply chain and support the wider NHS System.

Made up of three customer facing functions, the 15 clinicians within the Customer Engagement directorate play a vital role in identifying and implementing opportunities for improved patient outcomes. Through various customer panels, the Voice of the Customer team ensure all customer experiences, expectations, preferences, and feedback are captured and heard – ensuring alignment with the NHS and our wider system partners.

The Care Pathway team comprises of a Clinical Advisor group which is lead by two Lead Nurses (North and South) who head up a national team of Clinical Nurse Advisors providing full geographical coverage. The focus in the Care Pathway Team is around looking broader than the traditional types of procurement activity, to really harness the value proposition and opportunities they can bring around improved patient outcomes, unlocking efficiencies and reducing waiting times as well as supporting the meeting of best practice standards and objectives.

The Out of Hospital Care team has a wide and varied remit and works with customers across the Out of Hospital Care landscape. The diversity of the team enables the opportunity to grow within Out of Hospital Care, to create a sustainable, scalable, and equitable business offering throughout the whole of the Integrated Care System landscape. Within the Service Development team, there is a registered nurse with over 25 years NHS experience, 20 years being community focused, including senior positions developing clinical pathways, service development and integrated working across acute and community care.

The Inventory Management Systems team includes a Clinical Engagement Implementation Manager. With over 30 years tenured, qualified nurse experience, who has worked in, and with, many acute and community services, both as practitioner, and in leadership roles. His role within the team includes supporting trusts to realise the clinical and patient benefits with the help of robust implementation plans. There are unique aspects to each clinical team along with patient challenges, his role includes developing a matched solution for all shared goals.

For a more in-depth look at our clinical team within their directorates and how they can support you, See our Downloads ▼ section for the full PDF version. See our Useful Links section for relevant contacts.