Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership

Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership

Greater Manchester Woundcare Project

Briefly describe the initiative/ project/service; please include your aims and objectives

A regional procurement programme was created by the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) in February 2018. One key area of work was the Regional Wound care Project as outlined below. The project which is working through 20 wound care categories on a new GM Wound Care Formulary has gained agreement from stakeholders on category lines which make up around half of the £5m spend.

Clinical Project Manager, Celia Poole, who specialises in stakeholder engagement and procurement project management lead on the project. At the start of the project Celia set up 1-2-1 meetings with Senior Tissue Viability Nurses (TVN) at all Trusts to outline the project’s aims and ambitions and get their views about developing a standardised set of wound care products for Greater Manchester.

In November 2018 and more than 30 TVNs, podiatrists, dermatologists, burns and plastics specialists attended workshops. At these sessions, stakeholders were asked to vote on a set of wound care products which analysis had shown were already common to a significant number of trusts resulting in an agreed list of products for the region. Procurements have then been undertaken to put in place agreements to purchase these items.

What are the key achievements?

The project has already saved more than £0.5m on an annual spend on wound care products of £5m. The savings have been realised by aggregating Greater Manchester Trusts’ spend on designated wound care products and putting it through NHS Supply Chain, taking advantage of the National Price Matrices suppliers offer on the NHS SC frameworks.

The team have brought together multiple complex stakeholders and implemented the agreed project plan showing high levels of commitment and success. Communication at all times has been open and clear to not only procurement staff but also finance staff, clinical staff and others impacted including suppliers.

The project is being recognised as an example for other regions to follow and is being held up as an exemplar within the system especially with the National Woundcare Project. Combining Greater Manchester’s clinical and procurement experience and knowledge, plus the spending power of our 12 trusts, has meant that we can take advantage of economies of scale. It also means that clinicians are using products they’ve chosen and patients, whether they are in acute or community settings, are being treated with the same products. We feel a worthy winner of this years award!

What are the key learning points?

Although this was a NHS focused initiative the model and key learning is replicable across the wider public sector. In this case delivery has been successful thought the following key factors:

Clear governance: Roles and responsibilities need to be agreed early with clear escalation paths for when conflict occurs (and it will occur!).

Dedicated resources: This can’t be part of somebody’s day job. There must be dedicated full time resources to make this work. These resources also reported directly to the board for accountability.

Partnership Working: People must be invested, either financially or via use of own resources. At times larger benefits for single organisations were sacrificed for the greater good of the region.

Clear Communications: There was regular communications to the various stakeholders and they felt part of the process. This was key to ensure buy in to the final specifications.

Expertise: With this being such a specialised area it was vital that those using the products with the right expertise where involved and included all at stages, especially around decision making.