National Healthcare Estates & Facilities Day
It’s National Healthcare Estates & Facilities Day, we asked our team here at NHS Commercial Solutions for their highlights on working in the team.
Phil Spicer – Associate Procurement Director:
An area of estates that I have found exciting over the past 3 years, has been Procurement in Partnership (PiP) working together to look for collaborative opportunities in the categories such as waste, Linen & Laundry, Estates Consultancy, Modular Buildings and other areas. By working together, we have a greater understanding and influence on the market, this is a benefit to all the trusts that sit under the PiP umbrella.
NHS Procurement in Partnership (NHS PiP) is the collaboration between the four NHS procurement hubs; NHS Commercial Solutions, East of England NHS Collaborative Procurement Hub, NHS London Procurement Partnership (NHS LPP) and NHS North of England Commercial Procurement Collaborative (NOE CPC).
Email: philip.spicer@nhs.net
Monjur Elahi – Specialist Category Manager
Over the last 13 years of working within the NHS, I have developed an expertise on Estates and Facilities Management due to significant time working in this area. This included Capital and Operational expenditure on construction, maintenance and services, Waste Management, Cleaning and Linen & Laundry. One thing that I found in common with all Estates and Facilities Procurement is that sourcing compliance and securing an uninterrupted service within NHS Estates and Facilities can be challenging. However, once the balance is achieved, the feeling of satisfaction is rewarding.
In 2018, I had the pleasure of working with the wider Estates and Facilities team across 7 NHS Trusts on a collaborative Waste Management Services Tender, this took me around 8 months and involved working with some wonderful colleagues who work tirelessly, often beyond the working hours, to keep the services running. I managed the collaborative Procurement Project and the stakeholders, in developing the specification that addressed the local, statutory and legislative requirements around the overall waste management requirements, as well as separate Waste streams.
The bespoke specification for each Trust also addressed the Environmental aspects such as the reduction of carbon footprint, innovation and sustainability issues. Contracts were awarded to multiple suppliers, reducing the risk of over-reliance on a single supplier. Besides the cost savings and other efficiency, the greatest achievement out of the tender process was the establishment of a Central Supplier management group from the 7 Trusts to review a supplier’s performance as well as sharing lessons learnt regularly. It is a great project to have led on and to deliver it with a sustainable solution that is self-evolving as the contracts mature through their ages.
Email: monjur.elahi@nhs.net
For Estates Enquiries: nhscs.estates@nhs.net