Scientists move to safeguard supplies for NHS

SCIENTISTS FROM a university in Yorkshire are aiming to “future proof ” the NHS supply chain with an innovative project to reduce the risk of future shortages of essential products.

Researchers say the new platform will help the NHS order essential supplies such as personal protective equipment from lowrisk suppliers and will ease future shortages like those experienced in the first wave of the pandemic last year.

University of Sheffield researchers are working with Vamstar, the world’s first artificial intelligence-powered healthcare market place, to create a datadriven platform that can analyse the NHS and global procurement data – the act of obtaining goods or services.

It will allow NHS buyers to evaluate the credibility and capability of suppliers to fulfil their order.

The platform will give a realtime risk rating to each supplier, including information about the goods and services they supply, the quality and their history of working with the NHS and other EU hospitals.

The project aims to diversify the NHS supply base and reduce the overall risk of the NHS purchasing from companies who may be unable to fulfil an order and of receiving sub-standard goods.

Dr Ziqi Zhang, at the University of Sheffield, said: “To consolidate NHS contracting data will create a platform that we hope can future proof the NHS supply chain against any further crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw organisations struggle to procure enough PPE and other important products and services to protect their staff and better serve patients.”

The planned market place will also provide access to suppliers of all healthcare-related products.