Partnerships in Care is the UK’s leading independent provider of specialist mental health care and related services. The hospitals had historically operated in a decentralised way and the difference in costs, which different hospitals were paying for similar goods and services, was significant. PiC realised that it would benefit from an enhanced procurement programme – recognising that this would require huge cultural change – and appointed JMCL.
We did our analysis and delivered a series of recommendations which were accepted by the Board. We then set up category teams, involving people from across the organisation and developed a 6-month communication campaign designed to encourage everyone in the group to think more carefully about procurement.
JMCL established and facilitated a wide-range of category teams ranging from specialist areas such as pharmacy, psychiatric furniture and patient services to more everyday categories such as vehicles, agency labour, HR, print and stationery. In addition we identified and implemented a programme to improve procurement processes and systems including a contract database.
In a number of categories, including psychiatric furniture we successfully used e-auctions.
We delivered significant savings across all categories ranging from 10-30% pa.
For example within five months, the pharmacy team had chosen its new supplier and was set to deliver £600,000 over three years, equivalent to 10 per cent annual savings. For print & stationery savings are £40,000 a year, a 20 per cent annual saving.
JMCL established and facilitated a wide-range of category teams ranging from specialist areas such as pharmacy, psychiatric furniture and patient services to more everyday categories such as vehicles, agency labour, HR, print and stationery.
