Procurement of medicines and services for NHS secondary care

Understanding NHS procurement

This article is the first in a series of articles on procurement of medicines and pharmaceutical services in the NHS. The series is designed to support understanding of procurement in the NHS, particularly for those new to an NHS medicines procurement role. This article explains the key groups and organisations that work together to support procurement of medicines and pharmaceutical services in the NHS in England. The article NHS pharmacy procurement in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (SPS page) outlines procurement arrangements in the devolved nations.

NHS procurement structure

Medicines Value and Access

NHS England’s Medicines Value and Access function (MVA) provides the commercial capabilities that enable the NHS in England to secure both innovative treatments and established medicines at a price that achieves value for taxpayers.

Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain

The Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) is part of NHS England’s Medicines Value and Access (MVA) directorate.

MPSC is responsible for tendering, awarding and managing frameworks for the majority of licensed medicines for the regional pharmacy purchasing groups, in compliance with public contract regulations. The article Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) frameworks (SPS page) has more information about MPSC frameworks.

All tendering opportunities, including a 3-year workplan can be found on the government contracts finder webpage. This can be used by NHS organisations to find products that are currently on contract or will be on contract in the future.

National Procurement Delivery Group

The National Procurement Delivery Group (NPDG) brings together representatives from the key national medicines procurement teams, to oversee strategy of medicines procurement in the NHS.

NPDG membership

Membership of NPDG consists of:

• Regional Pharmacy Procurement Specialists (RPPS)
• MPSC managers and leads for branded and generic medicines
• MPSC pharmacy team
• Representatives from the devolved administration’s procurement teams
• Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) medicines supply team

NPDG subgroups

The NPDG has five subgroups:

• Generic Medicines Group
• Branded and Established Biosimilar Working Group
• Contract Delivery and Optimisation Group (CDOG)
• Contract Management Technology Group (CMTG)
• National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC)

Generic Medicines Group

The Generic Medicines Group supports development and management of the MPSC generic medicines frameworks and monitors the generics market, tender planning and supplier performance.

Branded and Established Biosimilar Working Group

The Branded and Established Biosimilar Working Group supports development and management of the MPSC frameworks for branded and established biosimilar medicines and monitoring of these markets.

Contract Delivery and Optimisation Group

The role of the Contract Delivery and Optimisation Group (CDOG) is to ensure that the NHS is aware of issues pertaining to patents on medicines. It supports the NHS to plan to introduce new generic and biosimilar medicines in a safe and timely manner.

The group also ensures medicines value optimisation opportunities are reported within the NHS, and that uptake improvement plans and processes are implemented effectively. This is done by:

• monitoring the patents on medicines and maintaining a record of patent expiries for all medicines licensed in the UK
• considering subsequent generic or biosimilar saving opportunities as patents expire
• considering any safety or operational issues that may arise from introduction of generic or biosimilar products as well as any budgetary implications
• using intelligence gathered in this area, to support MPSC with the development and delivery of a procurement strategy for these medicines.

Contract Management Technology Group

The Contract Management Technology Group (CMTG) supports and advises NPDG on matters relating to technological developments and IT systems that support the management of and optimal adherence to MPSC frameworks.

The scope of the group is limited to the following systems:

• RxInfo suite of data information systems, including Define, Exend and Exend+
• eCommerce systems, including GHX’s PowerGate and AAH’s Medecator and Medecator+
• Pharmacy stock accounting systems, including System C, OPTUM, and EPIC

National Homecare Medicines Committee

The National Homecare Medicines Committee (NHMC) subgroup acts as the national focus for developing and improving administration and governance processes for homecare medicines services.

Members are committed to collaboration and joint working across all sectors of the homecare medicines market.

Membership includes representatives from:

• Regional homecare specialists (including devolved nations)
• NHS SPS Procurement team
• Devolved administrations
• MPSC strategic category management team supporting homecare
• NHS commissioners
• NHS SPS Quality Assurance (QA) team
• Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
• NHS Chief Pharmacist
• Clinical colleagues
• Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI)
• National Clinical Homecare Association (NCHA)
• Medicines UK
• Regulators (GPhC, CQC and MHRA)
• Patient groups

NHMC subgroups

The NHMC has two subgroups:

• Supplier Engagement group (SEG), which meets regularly with all homecare providers to review performance and support innovation in the homecare market.
• Standardisation group, which aims to provide documents to support the NHS in the safe and effective delivery of homecare services.

NHS SPS Regional Pharmacy Procurement Specialists

Each of the 7 NHS England regions has a regional pharmacy procurement team that comprises of a lead and associate Regional Pharmacy Procurement Specialist (RPPS). These roles support hospital Trusts in their region and facilitate networking among Trust medicine procurement leads.

The role of the RPPS

RPPS functions include responsibility for ensuring the interests and requirements of Trusts are represented, from planning and design of the medicine tender through to contract award and implementation. This supports Trusts to optimise framework uptake.

The role drives engagement with contracting processes and encourages a collaborative approach to tackling issues such as shortages, e-commerce, best practice, better value procurement and concerns about supplier performance.

Each RPPS for England is a member of the Procurement Oversight Group within SPS.

Pharmacy procurement purchasing groups

England has six regional pharmacy purchasing groups based around historical medicine use and spend. The 6 pharmacy purchasing groups are known as DNW, DNE, DCE, DLN, DLS and DSW.

Each pharmacy purchasing group is allocated an MPSC buying group code.  These six groups are grouped for frameworks into three larger purchasing groups, also known as ‘super regions’:

• NWLN (DLN & DNW)
• LSNE (DLS & DNE)
• CESW (DCE & DSW)

The above groups are used in the contracts for generic medicines and can be used for transition medicines.

Procurement regions

The regional pharmacy purchasing groups form 4 larger procurement regions:

• North of England (NOFE)
• Midlands and East (MAE)
• London (LNW)
• South of England (SOFE)

These procurement regions are involved in the MPSC tranche frameworks. The article Procurement of branded medicines within the tranche system (SPS page) explains more about tranche frameworks.

North of England (NOFE)

The NOFE purchasing groups and MPSC codes (shown in brackets) are:

• North West (DNW)
• North East (DNE)
• Yorkshire; Humber (DNE)

Midlands and East (MAE)

The MAE purchasing groups and MPSC codes (shown in brackets) are:

• East Midlands (DCE)
• West Midlands (DCE)
• East of England (DLN)

London (LNW)

The London purchasing groups and MPSC codes (shown in brackets) are:

• North London (DLN)
• South London (DLS).

South of England (SOFE)

The SOFE purchasing groups and MPSC codes (shown in brackets) are:

• South East Coast (DLS)
• South West (DSW)
• Thames Valley & Wessex (DSW)

 

 

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