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Regional procurement of pharmacy products and services in England

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Topics: Policy, Commissioning and ManagerialProcurementTrusts

Regional procurement of several pharmacy products and services is managed by collaborative purchasing organisations (CPOs) in the NHS England.

This article forms part of a series
  1. Procurement of medicines and services for NHS secondary care
    1. Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) frameworks
    2. Procurement of branded medicines within the tranche system
    3. Regional procurement of pharmacy products and services in England
    4. NHS pharmacy procurement in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
    5. Net Zero and Social Value requirements in NHSE medicines tenders

Collaborative purchasing organisations

Collaborative purchasing organisations (CPOs) are regional groups that manage the procurement of a number of pharmacy products and services in England. These products and services are not covered by the Medicines Procurement and Supply Chain (MPSC) or NHS Supply Chain teams. The CPOs work within a region or regions to procure medicines and pharmacy services on behalf of the NHS in order to obtain best value for money in the most efficient way. This reduces the need for each organisation to tender for these products and services individually.

CPO regions

There are currently nine CPOs in operation across England.

Map of England divided into coloured regions labelled: NE and YH, NW, EM, WM, EoE, LN, SE and SW

North West (NW) North West England does not have its own NHS procurement hub but is covered by NOFE (see below).

North East and Yorkshire (NE and YH) North East and Yorkshire Pharmacy Procurement Consortium

East Midlands (EM) East Midlands Pharmacy Collaborative

West Midlands (WM) Health Trust Europe

East of England (EoE) East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub

South East (SE) South East Pharmacy Procurement Service

London (LN) NHS London Procurement Partnership

South West (SW) Peninsular Purchasing and Supplies Alliance

 

There is also

North of England (NOFE) North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative which covers NW and NE and YH

South East Coast (SEC) NHS Commercial Solutions which covers part of SE

NHS Procurement in Partnership (PiP) is a collaboration of 4 NHS procurement hubs serving multiple regions depending on the framework. These hubs include East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub, NHS London Procurement Partnership, North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative and NHS Commercial Solutions.

Pharmacy products and services managed by the CPOs

The types of products and services managed by the regional CPOs in England include:

  • cleanroom consumables
  • compounding Services including dose banded chemotherapy
  • contrast media and consumables
  • drug testing kits
  • emergency boxes
  • enteral feeds
  • eye products including viscoelastics, hyaluronidase
  • fibrin sealants
  • homecare (excluding national contracts managed by MPSC)
  • imports
  • liquid oxygen
  • medical gas cylinders
  • nitric oxide
  • overlabelled medicine packs
  • parenteral nutrition
  • pharmacy automation
  • radiopharmaceuticals
  • wholesalers
  • wound care

Update history

  1. Updated the section on CPO regions, including updated map image and added alt text to improve accessibility
  1. Republished
  2. Full review and update
  1. Published