Author
L Menzies
Bio: L Menzies is an academic researcher from University of Liverpool. The author has contributed to research in topics: Procurement & Purchasing. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 8 publications receiving 42 citations.
Papers
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01 Jul 2016
20 Mar 2016
TL;DR: A hermeneutic analysis of recent Government commissioned reports is provided to show how these have led to, and legitimised the dominance of narrow price-based approaches in NHS procurement and as a consequence, creates difficulties in moving towards holistic value-based procurement approaches.
Abstract: Procurement in the UKs National Health Service (NHS) is facing its most significant financial challenge. Government rhetoric sees procurement as either the NHS’s biggest inefficiency or its greatest opportunity. Despite the complexities, diversity and sheer scale of the NHS, the solutions offered are all too often packaged as “collaborate more”, “standardise products” and “leverage spend”. Unfortunately, these overly simplistic solutions often take a myopic view of market drivers and impacts, conflate spend with potential savings, and can ask the wrong questions of NHS professionals and suppliers alike. Most importantly, many contracts have already been commercially optimised yet the funding crisis continues to deepen. In this paper we provide a hermeneutic analysis of recent Government commissioned reports to show how these have set the tone, culture and priorities for NHS procurement. The analysis provides a backdrop to an empirical case study focused on a regional cluster of six NHS Trusts in England. The case study illustrates how the reports, and the wider reform agenda, have led to, and legitimised the dominance of narrow price-based approaches in NHS procurement and as a consequence, creates difficulties in moving towards holistic value-based procurement approaches.
20 Mar 2016
TL;DR: It is argued that reductionist approaches and formulaic cost efficiency savings in purchasing environments that have been cost optimised do not foster contemporary notions of collaborative service and value.
Abstract: This study reports initial insights on procurement practices across four Healthcare Trusts in the UK's National Health Service (NHS). This is a highly topical study with recent reports identifying a staggering NHS £671m deficit for 2014/15. In the latest government commissioned Carter’s report, £1 billion savings are set as targets in procurement improvement. This paper argues that reductionist approaches and formulaic cost efficiency savings in purchasing environments that have been cost optimised do not foster contemporary notions of collaborative service and value. This paper suggests that challenges around value based procurement in the NHS are at their core complexity issues.
Cited by
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TL;DR: In this article, a structured review of the literature on innovation in public procurement is presented, based on which the emerging structure of the field is described and synthesized into a framework.
44 citations
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors conducted semi-structured interviews with 39 procurement and supply chain management experts and derived seven propositions on buffering and bridging approaches for managing evolving resource dependencies and thereby strengthening supply chain resilience in a pandemic.
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article , the authors provide a state-of-the-art analysis to adopt circularity in procurement operations by reviewing 100 peer-reviewed research papers related to the implementation of circular economy and sustainable procurement.
28 citations
TL;DR: While aiming to go beyond price in the acquisition of most medical technologies, procurement adopts a narrow approach to assessing quality and costs, but also attends to factors little considered by HTA, suggesting opportunities for mutual lesson learning.
Abstract: Objectives Procurement's important role in healthcare decision making has encouraged criticism and calls for greater collaboration with health technology assessment (HTA), and necessitates detailed analysis of how procurement approaches the decision task. Methods We reviewed tender documents that solicit medical technologies for patient care in Canada, focusing on request for proposal (RFP) tenders that assess quality and cost, supplemented by a census of all tender types. We extracted data to assess (i) use of group purchasing organizations (GPOs) as buyers, (ii) evaluation criteria and rubrics, and (iii) contract terms, as indicators of supplier type and market conditions. Results GPOs were dominant buyers for RFPs (54/97) and all tender types (120/226), and RFPs were the most common tender (92/226), with few price-only tenders (11/226). Evaluation criteria for quality were technical, including clinical or material specifications, as well as vendor experience and qualifications; "total cost" was frequently referenced (83/97), but inconsistently used. The most common (47/97) evaluative rubric was summed scores, or summed scores after excluding those below a mandatory minimum (22/97), with majority weight (64.1 percent, 62.9 percent) assigned to quality criteria. Where specified, expected contract lengths with successful suppliers were high (mean, 3.93 years; average renewal, 2.14 years), and most buyers (37/42) expected to award to a single supplier. Conclusions Procurement's evaluative approach is distinctive. While aiming to go beyond price in the acquisition of most medical technologies, it adopts a narrow approach to assessing quality and costs, but also attends to factors little considered by HTA, suggesting opportunities for mutual lesson learning.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the relationship between transaction characteristics and social embeddedness, and ex ante cost and ex post problems, and explore whether the same relationships hold across transactions that involve only goods versus transactions that also involve services.
24 citations