Leading e-procurement services provider Millstream is to exhibit at the NHS Confederation annual conference next week, when change and sustainability will be on the agenda.
The NHS Confederation is the membership body for all organisations that commission and provide NHS services. Its annual conference and exhibition is being held at the ACC Liverpool from June 4-6.
Millstream runs the mytenders and Tenders Direct websites, which allow public sector organisations to publish tenders and private sector companies to bid for new business, as well as national procurement portals for Scotland and Wales.
Like local authorities, transport operators and other public bodies, NHS trusts are bound by strict rules on procurement, which affect every purchasing decision made in the public sector.
A total of 4,156 health-related contracts were published by Millstream in 2013, in sectors including hospital services, pharmaceuticals, cardiology, nursing services, surgical instruments and mental health services.
It has also reported a recent rise in contracts for weight management programmes, smoking cessation products, community healthcare and fitness services.
Millstream’s managing director Tim Williams said: “Healthcare is a major area for procurement so we will have the opportunity to hear more about the latest developments and policies on sustainability and reform in the NHS.
“Many NHS Trusts now publish notices electronically to give themselves the best chance of attracting a good number of quality bids, and therefore a wide range of options to chose from when they are awarding a tender for a specific piece of work.”
The NHS Confederation event is themed around its 2015Challenge, exploring the scale and nature of change needed to ensure a sustainable health and care system for the future.
Significant changes to the EU Procurement Directive, which are set to come into force this autumn, include a raft of new rules which will shake up the way public projects are tendered.
These changes have been designed to modernise and simplify the system, with an anticipated shift to an entirely electronic tendering process in the UK within two years.
Millstream’s mytenders service is already used by more than 700 UK public sector organisations to submit fully compliant UK and EU tenders from just one source, with support staff on hand to help.
Mr Williams said: “We developed mytenders to enable purchasers to manage the publication and procurement process in one place, and this is even more vital now the changes to the legislation will require all public procurement to be handled electronically.
“Both large and small public sector organisations use the service but NHS trusts and small district councils probably gain the most benefit as they don't always have full-time procurement staff to handle tendering.
“We've designed a number of features to make life easier and also send clients' notices on to the OJEU and Contracts Finder so as wide an audience as possible can see the tender notices.”
Visit Millstream at stand A50 at the NHS Confederation conference and exhibition at the ACC Liverpool from June 4-6 or visit http://www.millstream.eu