Procurement activities adapt to health service constraints

HealthShare Victoria (HSV) has worked closely with our health service customers over the past seven months to complete 34 unique sourcing activities which will deliver $34.3 million in cost reductions this financial year.

These sourcing activities included:

• sutures, skin staples and removers and tissue adhesives
• fire protection system maintenance (metro)
• catering supplies
• language services.

The Procurement Activity Plan (PAP) provides an overview of all our sourcing activities planned for the coming two years together with a list of all existing contracts.

HSV’s current FY22:H2 PAP covers the period from January 2022 to December 2023, incorporating health service feedback following the first PAP, which was launched in July 2021.

Key to the delivery of the PAP is health service participation in reference groups, which is essential to helping validate data and implement contracts once established so that we realise the benefits.

The pandemic has affected the normal operation of HSV’s reference groups. Health service employees are being redirected to primary focus areas and non-essential services have been postponed, including HSV reference groups in some instances.

HSV’s key focus is to ensure surety of supply of both products and services during this time and to mitigate potential disruptions to operations caused by product and service transitions. HSV has undertaken an impact assessment and has identified PAP activities that are likely to be impacted and will engage directly with health services regarding mitigation strategies.

HSV anticipates engagement and contract transition opportunities will be affected well beyond the recently ended Code Brown period as health services address the backlog and prioritise workload. HSV continues to work with health services to explore ways in which products can continue to be evaluated in a timely way in this more constrained environment.

The FY22:H2 PAP is available to view at HSV’s website.

If you wish to discuss the PAP review or any other procurement matters, please contact your Customer Relationship Manager or the HSV helpdesk at helpdesk@healthsharevic.org.au or phone 03 9947 3900.