HSV visits health services to introduce strategic procurement plan

During February and March 2026, members of HSV’s Procurement team visited 28 health services across the state of Victoria covering far north, south, east and west to both Regional and Metro Health Services as part of a roadshow to discuss our FY 2026/27 procurement strategy with chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief procurement officers (CPOs).

HSV’s FY 2026/27 Strategic Procurement Plan (SPP) will supersede HSV’s Procurement Activity Plan (PAP), encompassing the PAP while incorporating a broader strategic focus, and is being co-created between HSV and health services. The CFO roadshow aimed to introduce the SPP to our customers and learn what was important to them to inform the content.

HSV Chief Procurement Officer Sarah Bryant and General Manager Customer Engagement Alfred Matthews travelled across Victoria (both in person and online) accompanied by the individual region’s Customer Relationship Managers (CRMs).

“The CFO Roadshow is the first step in establishing greater engagement amongst the health service CFO and CPO group for the development of the SPP,” says Sarah.

“It provided an opportunity for us to have a discussion with health services on HSV’s planned procurement strategy for the next financial year. We listened to them, and we learnt a lot about what they are thinking, what is concerning them, and about future opportunities.

“We also took the opportunity to give the CFOs an overview of HSV’s current strategic initiatives, including how we are addressing the findings in the VAGO Report by improving our data quality to gain better insights and identify potential untapped benefits,” Sarah says.

The CFOs and CPOs told us what currently matters most to them is cost reduction and supply chain security, along with relationships with suppliers, data quality, integrity and insights, and workforce shortages in some categories. The health services also gave us some ideas for expanding the scope of some categories and additional ways to add value, which are now under consideration.   

Chief Financial Officer Northern Health Basil Ireland was one of the CFOs the group met with. 

“We are looking for opportunities to drive more efficiencies within procurement, so we welcomed the directional spend profile HSV provided. We are keen for ongoing collaboration with HSV on procurement strategy, and appreciate HSV’s engagement with CFOs across the sector, particularly as HSV’s CPO is now engaging with the Industry Finance Committee,” Basil Ireland says.  

Bayside Health, Victoria’s first merged LHSN as defined in the Health Services Plan, was formed with the voluntary merger of Alfred Health, Bass Coast Health, Gippsland Southern Health Service, Kooweerup Regional Health Service and Peninsula Health.

“The CFO Roadshow and face-to-face meeting between HSV and Bayside Health was appreciated, in particular the provision of a consolidated view of the spend across the LHSN. We look forward to collaborating with HSV and the regular provision of supportive reporting from HSV to gain further visibility of LHSN consolidated spend and common catalogue items, to drive value through identified category management opportunities by our procurement teams,” says Bayside Health Chief Financial Officer Kemsley Fairhurst.

Work now commences on the next stage of the SPP.

“With input from health services we’ve identified the opportunities. Work is now beginning to map out our approach with the health services and from there we’ll develop a pipeline of work,” says Sarah Bryant.

The draft SPP will be presented to health services for feedback once ready. We anticipate this will be later in 2026. 

 

Top image: HSV Chief Procurement Officer Sarah Bryant and General Manager Customer Engagement Alfred Matthews pictured with Seymour Health's Director of Business Services Colin James.