Duncan Ford our Senior Nurse within National Procurement discusses International Nurses Day.

Ahead of International Nurses day this weekend, we are spotlighting some of our nurses across NSS who are supporting Service Excellence and driving value based health and care across our service areas.

Today, we share more about the role of Nursing within National Procurement (NP). As NP’s Senior Nurse, Duncan Ford works alongside a range of commercial procurement teams and wider partners across health and care services in Scotland. Here he shares more:

“I am the clinical nursing voice in NSS National Procurement (NP). My role includes working with our team of commercial procurement experts and wider partners across the health and care services in Scotland.

“In my role, I support NP’s Commodity Advisory Panels. These are an integral part of the generation of each national framework. Throughout the year these panels regularly bring together clinical, procurement, regulatory, and other expertise to discuss and assess a range of products and services, and their suitability for patient care. These panels evaluate a range of factors including sustainability, quality, and best value, including opportunities where ‘economy of scale’ purchasing can be realised to drive improved financial sustainability across NHSScotland.

“As an Associate Member of The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, I also support the delivery of sustainability testing scores across national procurement frameworks. As Scotland progresses towards 2045 supplier net zero delivery will be essential in the enabling of our core work in NP reaching net zero. Collaboration with NHS colleagues and suppliers will inevitably have an impact on this.

"I am part of the NHS National Centre for Sustainable delivery commissioned Green Theatre project. This project enables and empowers NHS boards to deliver genuine reductions in carbon emissions within theatre departments across Scotland.

“At both a Scottish and UK level a very important aspect of my role involves work regarding supply resilience. This work ensures clinical work can be sustained without any hinderance due to commodity availability changes. This ranges from production concerns of one small lifesaving commodity from one of only two suppliers to world-wide transport concerns.

“Overall, my role as Senior nurse in NP is evolving to ensure that the output and approach of the service aligns, where relevant, with the aims of value based health and care. Specifically ensuring that NP outputs enable NHS boards to sustain clinical care in a way that reduces waste and unwarranted variation while also supporting quality of care, improvement and innovation.”

#IND2024 #OurNursesOurFuture