NHS Supply Chain has been awarded hundreds of millions of pounds for a major overhaul of its infrastructure, IT systems and operating model, HSJ has learnt.
According to well-placed sources, the national procurement agency is set to receive more than £300m from NHS England to carry out a programme that will modernise its 30-year-old IT systems and its warehouses.
It is understood this money will be allocated from the 2026/27 financial year and was part of allocations agreed in last year’s spending review.
The national agency’s chief executive, Andrew New, would not confirm the precise figure but said “the scale of it is in the hundreds of millions of pounds” and that improvements should be felt by the NHS in the next 18 months.
He added that the funding will cover “the change management of the organisation, as well as the infrastructure, technology, new service proposition, and some support to the trusts in their transition as well”.
Currently, the agency is geared towards “bulk deliveries into acute settings”, but this must change, with the NHS delivering more care out of hospitals in the future.
Date: 8 April