Supplier consultations a key focus for HSV’s Critical Supplies Register

With all seven clinical workstreams of the Critical Supplies Register (CSR) now complete, supplier consultations will continue to be a key focus for HSV’s Supply Chain Surety team for the next few months.

The CSR cardiovascular pilot is now complete and risk mitigation recommendations are currently under review.

Supply Chain Surety Director Kate Warren says recommendations from the pilot will be circulated to health services within weeks and implementation plans will be developed in quarter one of 2024.

Meanwhile, supply chain risk assessments are being carried out for the remaining six workstreams – pharmacy, critical care, dialysis, operating theatres, emergency/acute wards and radiation oncology.

“Outcomes from the pharmacy workstream are expected in early July 2023, after which we can begin our internal review,” says Kate.

The pharmacy group has reviewed supplier feedback and risk assessment outcomes, but additional information is needed for supply chain planning, including lead times and manufacturing capacity constraints.

The Critical Supplies Register is a health sector initiative to identify and manage supply chain risks for critical products. The project has involved 66 clinicians across 13 health services since it was established in October 2022.

The team plans to engage with health services procurement and supply leads in September 2023 to discuss how the CSR can best be operationalised.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done inhouse that will take several months,” says Kate.

“We expect to be able to develop implementation plans later this year.”

The Supply Chain Surety team will also continue its collaboration with state and federal agencies.

Kate says sharing information with organisations such as the Therapeutic Goods Administration and the National Medical Stockpile is an opportunity for other jurisdictions to benefit from HSV’s work and improve supply at a national level.  

The team will continue to keep health services informed of progress on the CSR.

To contact the Supply Chain Surety team about the CSR or a supply issue, please email supplychainsurety@healthsharevic.org.au.