NHS Estates pilots change

by Graham Ridout



NHS Estates is preparing a pilot partnering scheme that will be tested in two regions before the launch of a national campaign that will bring sweeping changes to the way health trusts procure projects in their £3bn annual capital expenditure programme.

NHS Estates chief executive Kate Priestley announced last week that the North West and West Midlands will act as pilots and called for people in those regions "to come and talk to us about their views so we can move forward".

A series of workshops and seminars are planned in the regions before opening up the debate nationwide.

Priestley said that the first pilots are likely to be for projects below £25m. The two regions will look at the quantum of work required over the next few years including all public schemes and all private finance initiative schemes up to a threshold that has yet to be agreed. PFI schemes already announced in the NHS's second and third tranche of projects will not be affected by the plan.

This information obtained from the regions will be used to develop a partnering framework programme that will be advertised in the Official Journal of the European Communities by the end of the year.

The regional workshops and national debates will also be used to formulate the NHS's construction charter, which Priestley hopes will be ready by autumn. The charter will set out the programme and timetable for the NHS's new procurement strategy, called ProCure 21.

Priestley said ProCure 21 was a result of "recognising what the industry was telling us - that we were an inexperienced client. We have 600 hospital trusts with the power to procure assets." She added: "Because we are so large, we can point to areas of good practice but we need to capture intelligence on good practice and pass it on to everyone."

Priestley said one of the issues to be developed through the frameworks will be the use of more standardised design.

ProCure 21 will entail entering partnering agreements with a limited number of suppliers. Priestley told CJ that no decisions had been taken on how members of the supply chain will be selected. "We are beginning to work on the criteria and will be using the European quality model to provide elements such as staff satisfaction and a supplier's health and safety record."

She added that NHS Estates would be happy to see draft criteria circulated for comment. "We want criteria that are open, transparent and fair and focus on the key elements. We will not be looking at prices."