Meetings & Events:
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July 13 2005 - Meeting on Healthcare Procurement:
Investing in a Safer Future for Patients

How buyers evaluate medical technologies and make procurement decisions impacts directly on the safety of patients. Including patient safety as a pre-purchase criteria can help to prevent adverse future events.

But how many buyers evaluate a technology before making a purchase? If patient safety is to be a consideration in procurement decisions alongside criteria such as clinical performance, maintenance and of course budget, evidence and data need to be readily available to support these decisions. How easy is it to make informed risk assesments when buying in the NHS?

The second meeting of the new session focused on this issue and was extremely well attended. Over 65 people from all areas of healthcare procurement and patient safety came to the meeting at the House of Commons and contributed to the discussion.

A panel of speakers offered their insight and recommendations on including patient safety in the procurement process before holding a wider discussion with questions from the floor.

Speakers were:

• John Warrington, Head of Innovation, Purchasing and Supply Agency
• Colin Morgan, Chair of HITF Market Access Work Stream
• Gillian Cavell, Deputy Director of Pharmacy, King Hospital
• Dr. George Findlay, Consultant, Intensive Care Medicine, Universtiy Hospital Wales & Clinical Co-ordinator NCEPOD
• Colum Lowe, Design Manager, National Patient Safety Agency