The Foundation Trust Network has published a study which it says found “no evidence” that collaborative purchasing leads to lower prices for medical supplies.

The network compared the actual monthly costs to 20 foundation trusts of 11 products, purchased between April and December 2010.

Of those trusts, 15 were members of buying clubs, or “collaborative procurement” groups.

The network said: “For the 11 products in this study, no relationship was found between participation in collaborative procurement groups and the average prices paid.”

FT Network chief executive Sue Slipman said: “Many attempts in the NHS to buy collectively have not delivered value, including the recently dropped national programme for IT procurement.”

She added that while ministers had little direct control over foundation trusts’ purchasing, this would not be the best way to achieve better prices on medical supplies.

The study comes after a May report by the public accounts committee called for the Department of Health to explain how it would be able to make the savings it “should enjoy” from joint, bulk buying of medical supplies, when all trusts have foundation status.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge said at the time: “The department should specifically spell out how, in the new NHS landscape in which foundation trusts act independently, trusts will be motivated to deliver collectively the £1.2bn savings which could be secured – and who will be accountable.”

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