Limited time to order remaining PPE stock before State Supply Chain winds down

HealthShare Victoria (HSV) has begun to wind down the State Supply Chain to reduce costs, as directed by the Department of Health.

The State Supply Chain (SSC) was set up at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when Victoria’s healthcare workers were using between 900,000 and 1.5 million respirator masks each week. The SSC played a critical role in ensuring Victorian public health services had access to goods that were in high demand or difficult to source. Monash Health managed the SSC before it transitioned to HSV in June 2023.

HSV recently notified health services that SSC operations in their current form will cease, and we will be exiting third-party logistics arrangements in place for storing excess stock. The remaining stock is being redeployed to our Derrimut DC, and we have recently led public auctions to clear surplus stock. 

Stock distributed through the SSC since 2022

To reduce costs, HSV will no longer maintain a catalogue of SSC products, and the Zycus ordering portal will be switched off on 30 March 2025. After that time, health services can order a limited range of personal protective equipment (PPE) until stock is exhausted.

In recent weeks, health services have ordered more than $1.3 million of equipment including pulse oximeters, transport monitors and infusion pumps.

HSV’s Director of Customer Engagement Alfred Matthews says health services should continue to order PPE and other products listed through the SSC.

“There are still infusion pumps, blood pressure monitors and other equipment available for health services to order free of charge,” he says.

“We encourage health services to avail themselves of this stock – we expect remaining stock to be exhausted by the end of May 2025.”

To provide visibility of remaining stock levels, a weekly SSC stock-on-hand report is published on the HSV website.

The closure of the SSC means that health services not yet onboarded as HSV distribution centre customers will no longer be able to place orders directly with HSV. However, mandated health services can purchase products that were available in the SSC through HSV contracts. Eligible services may also apply to access the HSV contracts. 

HSV opened the largest Victorian distribution centre for public health goods in Derrimut in 2021 as a hub for Victoria’s rapid antigen tests (RATs). Since 2022, more than 49 million surgical masks have been distributed to health services through the SSC, along with 13 million N95 masks, 31.5 million cleaning consumables, 505,000 sterilisation wraps and 4.5 million rapid antigen tests.