DXC Technology has been awarded a “major” contract by the Department of Health and Social Care for the new NHS Supply Chain.

DXC will assist with the transformation of the NHS’s procurement and logistics arm – namely the delivery of a new operating model – as outlined in the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) Procurement Transformation Programme (PTP).

The revamped system is expected to be fully operational by April 2019 and aims to simplify the procurement landscape for NHS organisations, while ensuring they can “purchase quality goods and consumables for patient care at the best possible value,” DHSC said.

NHS Supply Chain provides procurement, logistics, e-commerce and customer and supplier support services to the NHS.

Under the contract, DXC will be responsible for delivering supporting technologies and IT infrastructure services across NHS Supply Chain. This will include the management, support and maintenance of the internal IT systems infrastructure, hardware and software applications across the business, as well undertaking a “significant programme of IT modernisation and transformation” to support the future development of the service.

Jin Sahota, acting chief executive of Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SCCL) and SRO of DHSC, said DXC’s input would be “hugely critical to the success of the new NHS Supply Chain.”

“In DXC, we have a highly experienced operator with a track record in delivering major transformation within government,” added Sahota.

“As we look to increase patient care while balancing the challenges of an ageing population and growing cost burdens on the NHS, IT will be an essential enabling service to help us achieve our aim of delivering significant savings for NHS organisations for reinvestment back into NHS frontline care.”

NHS Supply Chain’s new operating model has been designed around the recommendations for improving procurement in the NHS outlined in Lord Carter’s 2016 review, which challenged the Health Service to shave off £22bn by 2020.

The review has influenced the adoption of Virtualstock’s Edge4Health procurement platform in a number of NHS trusts belonging to the Shelford group – most recently Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust – in 2017 and 2018.

Damien Ventakasamy, industry general manager of UK, Ireland, Israel, Middle East and Africa at DXC, added: “[Our] goal is to provide smarter, more effective IT to underpin the transformation of the buying experience of NHS organisations to support delivering patient care.

“Starting with transitioning existing critical services securely, DXC looks forward to supporting the new SSCL organisation in continually transforming digital services to deliver significant costs savings across the healthcare buying chain.”

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