Cluster sourcing

HealthShare Victoria's cluster sourcing approach is all about enhancing the sector’s collective buying power.

Cluster sourcing enables health services to pool resources, reduce duplication of effort and achieve better pricing and service delivery.

In 2018, following a successful pilot in Gippsland, HSV (at the time Health Purchasing Victoria) adopted a cluster procurement approach for the design, supply and installation of solar arrays at public hospitals grouped together in the same geographic areas across regional Victoria. Other cluster projects have included medical gas maintenance and chemotherapy preparations. 

Initiate a project

Victoria’s public health services, particularly those in regional areas, may choose to undertake procurement activities as part of a group to achieve economies of scale.

HSV’s approach to cluster sourcing provides a framework that enables health services to collectively procure within the parameters of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

• Health services may risk breaching the Act if their group procurement activity has ‘the purpose or effect of substantially lessening competition in a market’.
• HSV has developed resources to assist health services who wish to undertake a group procurement project: 
• Cluster Sourcing Fact Sheet
• Guide to Collective Procurement
• HSV Direction request template letter

If your health service is considering facilitating a cluster sourcing event for several health services in your region, a template for a cluster sourcing application letter is available.

For more information about cluster sourcing contact the health services Helpdesk.