HSV to manage the State Supply Chain from 2023

HealthShare Victoria (HSV) is working with Monash Health and the Department of Health to plan the transition of the State Supply Chain (SSC) to HSV in 2023.

“We are consolidating Victoria’s public health sector supply chains, including the management of the State Supply Chain, to enhance efficiency, consistency and reliability,” says HSV Executive Director Supply Chain Mili Cohen.

“We’ve started due diligence and planning for what we expect to be a complex transition that will require significant collaboration between HSV, Monash Health and the Department of Health,” she says.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victorian Government worked quickly to establish the SSC when Victoria’s healthcare workers were using between 900,000 to 1.5 million respirator masks every week.

Monash Health established and has managed the State Supply Chain since early 2020. HSV works with the SSC and is responsible for sourcing the large quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and essential supplies it holds, fulfilling orders from Victorian public health services and the Department of Health.

The SSC has been a very successful initiative, helping to navigate shortages of essential items, manage spikes in demand and provide some visibility of key inventory for the Department of Health.

HSV opened the largest Victorian distribution centre for public health goods in Derrimut in 2021 and it has already proven valuable as a hub for Victoria’s rapid antigen tests (RATs), with 186 million RATs sourced and warehoused.