HSV hits the road to gain pharmaceutical agreement insights

HSV’s Pharmaceutical team conducted a roadshow across Victoria recently, visiting 16 regional health services currently purchasing products from HSV’s compounded chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies preparation (CCMABP) collective agreement.

The CCMABP agreement commenced in December 2023 and as the principal period comes to an end in December 2026, HSV will commence a review on behalf of our health service customers.

In line with our ongoing objective to build trusted business partnerships with Victoria’s public health sector, HSV’s Senior Category Manager Anthony Bastick and Category Manager Pharmaceuticals Margaret Got visited participating regional health services to understand their current requirements, operational needs and priorities to better inform future arrangements. 

Many metropolitan health services have the facilities and resources to compound their own chemotherapy and MAB products. For those that don’t, the CCMABP agreement allows regional and rural health services to access these life-saving pharmaceuticals.

The regional health service roadshow was completed over 3 weeks in June, with the HSV Pharmaceutical team travelling as far north as Echuca Regional Health, Bairnsdale Regional Health in the south-east and Western District Health Service in the west to visit participating health services in person and online.

For the Procurement team, the roadshow provided a valuable opportunity to experience how individual health services make use of the CCMABP agreement. 

“Getting out on the road and visiting regional health services in person helps strengthen HSV’s health service relationships and builds trust and credibility with our regional customers,” says Margaret.

“HSV’s Pharmaceutical team is committed to partnering with health services to deliver better value and support patient outcomes in upcoming supplier negotiations.”

For health services, the face-to-face support was greatly appreciated.

“The visit was a valuable and engaging experience that provided an opportunity to ask questions, better understand the statewide challenges facing health services, and contribute to potential solutions,” says GV Health Director Pharmacy Shams Zaidi.

“It also fostered a collaborative partnership with HSV, enabling us to work together on practical approaches that support both health services and patient outcomes.”

Mercy Health Director of Pharmacy James Dwyer said the agreement delivers value while maintaining high-quality patient care.

“Previously, this work had been undertaken internally and is extremely labour-intensive, requiring pharmacy staff to be diverted away from patient care activities,” says James.

For HSV’s Chief Procurement Officer Sarah Bryant, the pharmaceutical-focused road trip adds to the team’s program of engagement that includes the forthcoming CFO roadshow to kick off in October.

“In addition to our commitment to building a dedicated supplier relationship function within HSV, our Procurement category managers are engaging more closely with our health service customers on key procurement activities to drive better outcomes for hospitals, their patients and wider communities. 

“This work complements the well-established outreach and support delivered by the HSV Customer Engagement team,” says Sarah.

Top image: HSV’s Anthony Bastick and Margaret Got at Echuca Regional Health.