Ever wondered what it’s like to work in an NHS supplies and procurement team responsible for the ordering and distribution of medical stock, equipment, PPE and much more for not only our hospitals but also health services across the local community?
Communications and engagement officer Kara Pickering decided to walk a day in their (steel-capped-toe) shoes to see the day to day running of the department and highlight the vital role some of our most ‘back-office’ staff provide and how their work is focused around providing the very best care for our patients.
It’s an early start in the central stores department, on average 20 pallets a day of stock and equipment are delivered, checked in and distributed. Local stock needed on the wards and departments is delivered internally by our integrated inventory assistants, any items needed for GP surgeries, local health centres, Hartlepool or Peterlee Hospitals are delivered by our portering team.
Deliveries are checked in by the member of supplies team who is working on the bay that day, the stock is cross-checked with the delivery note to ensure the correct items and quantities are received, they are then checked into the system and placed in the correct area to be distributed to specific wards or departments.
The team begin each day with a huddle led by the team supervisor to discuss what the daily priorities are and which wards and areas they will be working on. Once the Integrated Inventory Assistants have their allocated wards they take any stock from central stores to unload from the cage and begin to ‘top up’ any items which are running low. Everything with a use-by or expiry date is stock rotated to ensure those with the newest use by dates are at the back, meaning less items are likely to go out of date and be disposed of, reducing waste and saving costs.
Once the items are filled up, the IIA’s use their hand held devices to go through and order new stock for the items which will need filling up next. By maintaining the stock on a regular basis the team ensure the clinical staff always have the correct items on the wards they need to care for their patients. The supplies team managing the stock on each ward saves the clinical staff time and frees them up to spend more time carrying out their clinical duties.
Some members of the team are based within theatres and their main responsibilities are to ensure there are enough instruments and surgery equipment for the theatre team to carry out their procedures each day. Once a procedure is complete, any instruments or equipment used are recorded and given to the theatre supply worker who then orders a replacement immediately so the stock levels are always maintained.
The theatre supplies staff have built great working relationships with the surgeons and theatre team and they use their expert knowledge to order new or rare items requested for certain procedures that we don’t usually have in stock, they liaise with suppliers to locate items and obtain the best quotes.
The procurement team manage all internal orders placed by staff as well as selecting vendors, negotiating contracts and purchasing products. The supplies and procurement staff often go unrecognised but without them the hospital couldn’t function. It was thanks to their expertise and knowledge that during the pandemic, through liaising with local companies to source PPE they ensured our staff had the best possible protection and were never without.
