Akeso assisted NHS Supply Chain to design and implement the direction, approach, and essential tools and templates required to swiftly initiate national roll-out of an Inventory Management System (IMS) across the NHS. In doing so, Akeso supported on critical components including procurement and contracting guidance, engagement and pipeline development, turn-key delivery design, and Quality assurance oversight.
Insight:
To enable greater supply chain resilience and improve visibility at a both a local and national level, NHS Supply Chain, with funding from NHS England, set out to develop, procure and deploy a ‘best in breed’ turn-key IMS and Point of Care (POC) system, establishing a centre of excellence to enable this vision. Beyond this, through investment in local Systems, this Programme lays the foundation for wider health and care initiatives including: driving improved data standardisation through GS1; supporting the Scan4Safety agenda; and enabling System and data connectivity through the Federated Data Platform Supply Chain use case.
Akeso, with extensive experience in Inventory management and System implementation, were engaged to support the design and mobilisation of the programme and aid the selection of the early adopter sites for initial deployment, working with the team to embed capabilities and expertise to ensure successful, long-term rollout and benefits realisation.
Action:
Akeso provided hands-on support to establish the direction, approach, tools and templates needed to get the national IMS Programme up and running within a short period of time, whilst driving positive engagement across over 50 Trusts. Key areas of support included:
Procurement & Contracting: Supporting the NHS Supply Chain commercial team in advising the procurement process and developing the necessary contractual documentation to support a robust and compliant contractual arrangement that best supports a turn-key approach
Engagement & Pipeline: Establishing a robust engagement and selection process to best identify suitable Trusts and developing a comprehensive array of pipeline and engagement material to support informed decision making.
User-Centric Design: An important aspect to the design of the new IMS and PoC system was to ensure that the user was at the heart of the design and roll-out. This was incorporated through our robust engagement and selection process.
Change Management & Implementation: Using person-centred change management approach, we collaborated with teams in NHS Supply Chain and the Trusts, across various functions and levels to ensure the vision was implemented effectively and could be sustained through knowledge sharing and upskilling. In doing so we co-developed a suite of delivery tools to enable turn-key delivery from scoping and business casing through to benefits realisation
Continuous Improvement: We supported the Programme in implementing an iterative process whereby feedback and learning mechanisms were established across working groups, the programme and Trusts to drive continuous improvement and refinement of existing processes and developed material
Results:
- Rapid programme mobilisation with selection of three early adopter deployment sites during the first 6 months
- Development of engagement process and selection tools enabling the down-selection of over 150 candidate Trust to a pipeline of the 20 most suitable Trusts
- Production of robust contractual documents to support procurement of a ‘best in breed’ turn-key solution
- In-trust blueprint project plan & approach created and adapted to accommodate national Trust heterogeneity
- Benefits modelling tool and business case template developed to navigate Trust-level governance at pace
- Full suite of best practice programmatic and delivery tools to enable turn-key delivery.
Long-Term Impact:
- As of January 2025, six trusts are now fully operational with IMS, enjoying financial savings and enhanced productivity.
- Five trusts have successfully implemented PoC, enabling clinicians to link products directly to patients—enhancing safety and creating patient-centric supply chains.
- Several other trusts are well underway, with more go-lives planned through 2025.
To find out more about the live IMS and PoC System as well as the longer-term ambitions, please read this article from NHS Supply Chain. The programme signals an investment in driving much needed System coordination and integration.