Health services take creative approach to unlocking more value from Procurement Activity Plan

Forty representatives from health services across Victoria participated in a face-to-face workshop to help develop the next HSV Procurement Activity Plan (PAP) in Melbourne earlier this week.

Health services were invited to take part in the consultative workshop to help develop the PAP for the period July 2025 to July 2027.

HSV Director of Customer Engagement Alfred Matthews says the workshop was an opportunity for health services to come together and brainstorm opportunities to deliver procurement savings for the Victorian health sector.

“This process is an evolution of the work that began last year with our increased face-to-face engagement. There is a continued appetite for change in the sector and we want to make sure we hear health services’ voices and incorporate their feedback into our processes.”

The workshop was designed to spark creative problem-solving, with a focus on adding value to mature brownfield categories, which health services have let us know is a key priority for them, says Alfred. 

In addition to an overview of current categories, the workshop involved an ideation process designed to generate a high volume of ideas in a short period of time. Ideation has been used with great success at organisations like Apple and Netflix, as well as many Australian organisations such as the Commonwealth Bank, the CSIRO and Telstra.

Director of Procurement Services at Northern Health Ishmeet Singh says the PAP workshop highlighted the power of open discussions towards a common goal.

“We gained a deeper understanding of each other’s perspectives, and the ideas shared will help shape the PAP and category strategies for future.

The low-hanging fruit may be gone, but value opportunities remain. While our approach evolves, our goal stays the same – driving value and efficiency for the health sector. With continued collaboration, we can turn these discussions into impactful improvements. Well done to the HSV team,” he said.

Director of Corporate Services at Monash Health Mark Misquitta says it was valuable to hear the views of other health services.

“When you create an environment for candid conversation and bring everyone together in one room it’s very valuable. You can’t assume that just happens because we’re all in the sector. If it results in ideas that change the direction of HSV, that’s wonderful, but it also supports those important connections between health services.”

Director of Corporate Services from Central Highlands Rural Health Kristie Lawson says she attended the PAP workshop online last year and preferred this year’s face-to-face format.

“It’s been good to be able to bounce ideas off each other, and a great opportunity to meet people I hadn’t met before. It was a good exercise doing the rapid-fire sharing of ideas between us,” Kristie says.

Support Services Manager at Monash Health Sarah Wipfli said sharing ideas was very worthwhile, particularly with such a large group.

“It was great getting the different health services together, both from regional and metros because everyone has a different perspective on what’s needed in healthcare.”

More than 250 ideas were generated during the workshop, and they included practice improvement for clinical waste, the sale and disposal of assets, improved pricing for volume, document storage, equipment leasing and digital personas. 

HSV’s Interim Chief Procurement Officer Rebecca Prior said as a first step the Procurement team will compile ideas from the workshop and share with the sector by 7 March 2025.

“The ideas will then go through a prioritisation process and from there we will work out which ideas should be incorporated into the PAP. The prioritised list will undergo opportunity assessments which if they are deemed to be viable, will become future PAP activities,” she says.

The final PAP will go to the HSV Board in June for approval.

“We would like to sincerely thank health service representatives who attended the workshop today for helping to shape the next PAP,” Rebecca says.