NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) has joined forces with 33 partners from 15 countries to advance innovation in procurement in Europe. The aim is to bring best value for money to the public purse where each year around 10% of GDP is spent on health and social care supplies and services. Procure4Health is an EU funded project that started on 1 June 2022 and is creating a community of Health & Social Care procurers at local, regional and European level.
The ambition is to bring cutting-edge processes and technology closer to the public sector.
NSS’s involvement will ensure that Scottish stakeholders, including NHS Scotland, can benefit directly from the sharing of knowledge and expertise in innovation procurement across Europe.
NSS is classed as a founding member and will support the creation of the European Innovation Public Procurement Community and the design and implementation of twinning, knowledge exchange, action planning and dissemination activities.
Members of NSSs Research, Development and Innovation and National Procurement teams joined with colleagues participating in Procure4Health at the first conference held in October 2022. The conference was hosted by Ministry of Health of Andalucía in Malaga, Spain.
It was a chance to meet and take part in the first stages of developing the Community, its terms of reference and to identify the themes of the projects in which to collaborate across Europe.
Activity on the workstreams will progress over the upcoming months to shape the community and start to share knowledge and learning.
If you’d like to know more, contact the NSSs Research, Development and Innovation Office nss.rdioffice@nhs.scot