A growing number of NHS supplies departments currently use MultiQuote to ensure suppliers are constantly in competition. The current savings figures being achieved translate to potential savings of around £150 million across the entire NHS.

However, this week's article in the Times is just one of many suggesting that NHS procurement is wasteful and inefficient. It seems that everybody is lining up to attack NHS buyers without necessarily understanding the uniquely complex nature of healthcare procurement.

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NHS suppliers in the Yorkshire & Humber region received 61,130 business opportunities and were awarded over £2m of new business through MultiQuote in 2009.

8 NHS Trusts in the region used the MultiQuote Service to achieve cash releasing savings, source new suppliers and ensure that more opportunities are provided to suppliers in their region. In addition to this, Yorkshire & Humber suppliers also benefited by gaining access to new Public Sector business throughout the entire UK.

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has become the latest prestigious NHS Trust to recognise the benefits of MultiQuote in its eProcurement strategy.

Requisitions requiring written quotes are now being processed and turned around in as little as 3 hours, which is a vast improvement on the previous method of that took up to 2 weeks. The efficiency gained is enabling the trust to subject more requisitions to competition, generating increased savings.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has just entered its 3rd year of MultiQuote usage. The Trust first deployed the sub OJEU pricing and sourcing service in 2008 and has since realised a very healthy return on investment from the cash releasing savings achieved.

The trust continues to utilise MultiQuote, ensuring that they always receive best value from the market. Cambridge University Hospitals derive great benefit from being able to access suppliers for all areas of spend, from across the UK - delivering the best products, at the best prices to its clinicians.

After an extensive investigation of the market, the NHS Blood & Transplant Service have decided to deploy MultiQuote to challenge its sub OJEU spend area.

NHS Blood considered various strategies to address this issue before commissioning MultiQuote. The service now has the ability to source from a large, comprehensive database in addition to their own incumbent suppliers. This enables NHS Blood and Transplant Service to drive savings from competitive quoting as well as highlighting alternative solutions that meet its requirements. This brings innovative procurement even at low value spend.