Background
The East Anglian Clinical Waste Consortium is a group of eight trusts across 2 integrated care systems (ICSs) cooperatively tendering their clinical waste requirements. This is the second iteration of the Consortium, and now includes additional members, but their aims remain the same: to amalgamate spend to ensure the best value for money commercials, improve patient care, enable innovation, support contract management and emphasise the sustainability agenda.
Project
The Hub’s Estates team supported the Consortium member trusts by evaluating routes to market, preparing tender documentation and providing project support such as coordination of the large number of stakeholders from across the eight trusts.
The project is ongoing, and as it develops, the Hub will run training session for evaluators, chair moderation sessions and continue to manage the procurement process on behalf of the Consortium.
The Hub has also worked with the trusts to resolve challenges brought about by the complexity, scale and large number of stakeholders involved in this project. As an example, although the overarching service required by each trust is similar, they have differing local requirements that needed to be reflected in the specification. The Hub worked with the Consortium members to develop the specification to ensure each trust received the appropriate level of service. This also helped to manage the suppliers’ expectations in terms of delivering a service that was tailored to local requirements and circumstances.
‘Patrick (Pereira) has worked patiently to coordinate such a large and diverse stakeholder group. His help to prepare the specification to meet the requirements of all eight trusts has been invaluable, as has the wider support that Patrick and the Hub have provided for this project.’
Peter Huttley, Head of Facilities Management
James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Outcome
The work supporting the Consortium continues. With the Hub facilitating the collaboration between the trusts and by amalgamating spends, we will ensure that suppliers provide the best value for money in the following areas:
Commercials
By increasing economies of scale, we can reduce overheads and costs associated with bidding and to produce savings for the trusts on a like-for-like service when procured separately.
Patient Care
Several trusts will use the service for collection from patient homes, which will allow nurses to leave waste after a visit for collection by supplier. For one member trust (James Paget University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust), this will increase the number of visits a staff member can make in a day from nine to 11 as they will not need to go back to base to dispose of waste. This service may not prove cost effective for a single trust, but with multiple trusts requiring the same service, it will be. As a result, this will provide a benefit to the trust and the patients they serve.
Innovation
Trusts are given value for money as suppliers can plan for greater investment in innovation due to the higher contract value. The trusts also benefit as innovations that were not cost effective for one trust alone can be reconsidered as a whole collaborative. Examples of this include the onsite melting of single use plastics into briquettes that are easier and cheaper to transport and recycle or turning waste into floc onsite. As a result, this ensures waste is easier and cheaper to transport and recycle.
Contract Management
A joint and cohesive approach to contract management will deliver value for money by giving the collective greater influence on securing better outcomes and adherence to standards and the specification, as well as requiring less resource from each individual trust in the process.
Sustainability
Better innovation, investment and contract management will lead to the trust obtaining a more sustainable service.