NHS Work

THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS has recently seen a major expansion in its work for the NHS including a major supply chain project for NHS Blood and Transplant and project with a number of NHS Primary Care Trusts to improve logistics operations for dealing with emergency planning such as the outbreak of H1N1 influenza, more commonly know as swine flu.

The Tooting Blood Centre in London is the largest in the UK and serves almost 50 hospitals in the south east of England, including all of London’s major teaching and specialist hospitals.  Blood distribution in this region is a complex matter with thousands of units of blood being collected, processed and delivered every week.  Ever conscious of the need to control costs whilst ensuring that patient care is not compromised, the Tooting Centre had been paying special attention to the way it managed its blood stocks and its distribution network.

Consultants from THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS met with and talked to senior managers from many of the hospital transfusion laboratories to learn about their requirements and to understand the complexities of blood management.  The work included a full survey of hospital staff as well as detailed analysis of transport operations and stock management policies.  The recommendations made by THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS included measures which would increase the effectiveness of the stocking and issue of blood and hence help to minimise costs.  NHS Blood and Transplant were delighted with the output and as Teresa Allen, Assistant Director of Public & Customer Services put it….

“The recommendations received were clear and concise and have been widely accepted throughout NHSBT.  I would have no hesitation in working with THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS again”.

Emergency planning teams at Islington and Westminster PCTs both used specialist consultants from THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS to review the logistical processed involved in the storage, handling and distribution of their supplies of anti-viral drugs, vaccines and personal protective equipment (PPE).  The PCTs had been required by the Department of Health to play a major part in getting consumables and protective equipment required for the Swine Flu vaccination programme distributed to hospital and GP surgeries in their area.  This is not a task that they normally have to undertake but in an emergency needs must.  Clearly there was a lot riding of this very public event and both PCTs were keen to ensure that their logistics processes were sound and up to the task.  THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS reviewed their distribution arrangements and came up with a set of processes that would ensure success.  Each of the PCTs had established different methods to deal with their particular problems so THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS team had to take a flexible approach and determine how best to apply good logistics practice to the particular circumstances.

Martin Machray, Islington PCT’s Head of Communications and Engagement, was very impressed with the work….

“THE LOGISTICS BUSINESS worked with the Emergency Planning Team to map our processes and helped find answers to questions that we hadn’t even thought of.  This prompted us to quantify the scale of the logistics requirement in terms of throughput quantities and volumes”.