Genmed has announced that it has been selected as a vendor neutral managed services provider by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) to work with its point of care team (POCT). The appointment is initially for a five-year period with an option to extend by agreement.
As part of the contract, Genmed will manage the relationship with third-party providers to ensure optimum service delivery at the very best prices. The initial requirement is for blood glucose and ketone meters for use at the point of care, together with an IT solution to connect the monitoring equipment and associated consumables. Last year, the Trust used 825,400 glucose and 20,750 ketone strips.
It is anticipated that additional point of care testing products will also be brought into the contract over the period. This includes, but is not limited to, cholesterol, urine, INR and haemoglobin meters, pregnancy and HIV tests along with blood gas analysers.
It is estimated that up to 5000 to 6000 nurses and 2000 to 3000 doctors use point of care testing equipment 24 hours a day.
Tony Stanyard, Head of Procurement, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust’s says, ”Following a formal tendering process, Genmed was awarded the POCT contract. They have an established track record of working with NHS Trusts based on a decade of experience. This gave us the confidence that they could really deliver improvement in our point of care testing services yet save money at the same time.”
Genmed adds value add in the procurement process
The use of Genmed to support the procurement function helps to rationalise and standardise pricing, improve efficiency, reduce costs, enhance clinical productivity, speed up purchasing, and minimise administration associated with invoice processing and payments.
Genmed’s approach since start up is therefore closely aligned with all the key directives highlighted by Lord Carter of Coles1 in his report to improve the efficiency of hospitals.
Importantly, Genmed is not tied to any third-party supplier and selects consumables and equipment based on close collaboration and input from NHS managers and clinicians. Genmed is therefore unique in the market to offer flexible vendor neutral managed services. This also means Trusts get the very best value for money given its managed services are HMRC compliant for VAT recovery. NUH will receive 20% budget back as VAT can be reclaimed on Genmed provided managed services – cash that can be reinvested in front line services and patient care.
Genmed’s managed services package all costs using an umbrella contract with the service then billed monthly or quarterly. All project costs are ‘smoothed’ with no big upfront investment required.
Genmed is not a managed equipment provider or a finance house. Its remit is much wider. It is an integral partner working with NUH to ascertain what clinical facilities or technology they need, their workload issues, finding and selecting suppliers, driving product costs down, putting together the finance, managing the contracts, paying subcontractors and taking all the risk upfront itself.
Robin Modak, Genmed’s chief executive officer, says, “Our services are comprehensive, flexible and can link together to support NUH. We work in partnership offering true choice so that the right equipment and services are offered at the right time in the right place aligned to current, medium and future requirements – with flexibility in the contracts built in so that change can be catered for along the way.”
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