The Department of Health is working with the NHS to draw up a new strategy for NHS procurement and this will be published by 31st March 2012. A New Strategy for NHS Procurement will help launch this initiative and engage with all parts of the NHS, both to brief delegates and promote discussion about how it can be implemented, the implications and, in particular, how the savings can be achieved.

The NHS, through QIPP, is expected to deliver procurement savings of £1.2bn by 2014/15. However, is that enough? As a whole, the NHS is expected to deliver efficiencies of some £20bn, which implies that, if procurement was to take its fair share, savings of some £3bn-3.5bn would be needed.