The must-read stories and debate in health policy and leadership.
Trusts and integrated care system procurement teams have drawn fire, in a report leaked to HSJ, for developing their own warehousing and logistics infrastructure, building up stockpiles of products and equipment in parallel to national storage and distribution operation.
They have “no strategic connectivity to the national network in terms of storage, cost or capability”. This risks “duplication in cost and a division in supplier management”.
But why are trusts and ICSs investing in trucks and sheds? Local procurement folk would tell you it’s for resilience. They are investing in their own warehouses and logistics operations because they do not have faith in the ability of NHS Supply Chain’s national system to supply all they need in full and on time.
These ICS-based hubs, however, need not be seen as competition by the centre. They could make NHSSC’s life a lot easier, providing single dropping-off points for multiple trusts at a time.
However, they must be joined up with the national system, with a properly integrated set of inventory management systems, the golden thread that runs through so much of the untapped potential in NHS procurement right now.
Churn of events
Javed Khan, chair of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board, has been on a “period of extended leave” since the beginning of the month.
This comes amid wider concerns about unstable leadership, poor relationships and staff dissatisfaction at the organisation. Neither the organisation nor Mr Khan commented on the reasons for his extended leave, which remain unconfirmed.
Several senior sources in the BOB system and wider region raised serious concerns about the state of the ICB and its leadership.
Problems cited to HSJ include concerns about Mr Khan’s behaviour and style of working; very poor staff satisfaction; a purported lack of engagement by Mr Khan with chairs of the trusts in the system; and poor relationships with local authorities.
The ICB now faces a leadership vacuum. Its substantive CEO James Kent – who had been a Number 10 Downing Street health adviser – quit in the autumn, and a process to appoint a successor has been abandoned, while the interim CEO is due to leave in June. Six senior executive posts, in addition to the CEO, are currently filled by interims.
Vice chair Sim Scavazza is standing in as interim chair.
Also on hsj.co.uk today
In Recovery Watch, James Illman speaks to NHS Providers’ deputy chief executive Saffron Cordery, who is calling for NHS England to urgently begin negotiations with the British Medical Association on its “rate card” and overtime rates. And we report that take-up and usage of the NHS App in England has begun to plateau, figures seen by HSJ suggest.
