HOW NHS SBS OPERATES AT THE HEART OF HEALTHCARE
the transactional procurement for requisitions and so on . We give them the IT system on which end users will raise those requisitions and access the catalogues , and we negotiate the contracts that go into those .”
Through finance and accounting side , this is where the partnership with Tradeshift comes in . Via the invoices sent in and the purchase orders which then go out , NHS SBS has a huge amount of data on what is being bought by various different organisations at what price and from which suppliers .
The partnership can help NHS utilise data better and therefore make better procurement decisions based on the use of the shared business services . It has an unrivalled view on what the NHS buys and a unique ability to help them buy it more effectively .
Forward-thinking However , this does not mean new business opportunities naturally present themselves to NHS SBS . A business case has to be made to each of those provider organisations on an individual basis to garner their interest .
Murphy said : “ That ’ s why we went into procurement , we felt we already had half the story . With the
NHS SBS collects around £ 14 billion of debt and 7.5 million invoices are processed annually .
‘ In terms of company goals , we obviously need to remain commercially competitive to exist but really we are here to save the NHS money and to improve its services ; one of the best ways to achieve this is through effective procurement ’
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