Saving healthcare procurement teams time and money is the aim of an innovative and intuitive directory that pulls together all NHS framework agreements into one place.
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Framespan is powered by healthcare technology company, Virtualstock, and is currently being trialled by over 300 procurement professionals from over 30 NHS trusts in England and Wales.
It pulls together all essential NHS frameworks and suppliers into one searchable directory, making it easier for buyers to find the right procurement pathway in a matter of minutes, with links through to the original frameworks.
Previously, procurement teams would need to carry out time-consuming searches for frameworks, promoted by providers on different websites, each working differently and providing different levels of information.
The idea for Framespan came about following a discussion between founder Ed Bradley and an NHS Procurement Director in 2021.
Ed said: “At the HCSA conference last year, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Claire Bye, the incoming Chief Procurement Officer at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, the largest hospital in the southwest peninsula.
“In our discussion, Claire made a clear and simple statement that set the idea running: ‘What I would like is all the frameworks in one place’. She went on to depict the procurement journey that buying teams across the country have to endure on a daily basis,” he said.
What was described was an acute need for a consolidation platform to solve a practical issue that wasn’t too dissimilar to that of the property market for example some years ago, according to Ed.
He added: “Before consolidation and comparison sites existed, the only way to search for property was by visiting the estate agent’s own website. Each website would be different, displaying properties in their own individual way in the web layout they chose.
“It meant every property seeker’s experience was completely different, depending on the site they were searching, creating two fundamental issues – the first was that what they saw and how they saw it would vary, meaning their user experience was poor and inefficient.
“The second was that people searching for property could never be sure they were assessing the whole market – and that’s similar to what we were hearing when it came to accessing procurement frameworks.”
Using a consolidation approach such as Framespan could make a big difference to teams up and down the country, according to Claire Bye, Chief Procurement Officer at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.
She said: “I described the need for a single directory of all the frameworks we buy from, and Virtualstock created Framespan. I am delighted with the platform and not only use it myself but have encouraged hospitals throughout the Southwest to adopt it, and the feedback has been fantastic.”
Time-limited free trials are being offered to NHS trusts for the rest of 2022 – with no obligation to continue after the trial – as part of a collaborative approach to developing the product, so that it continues to meet the needs of procurement teams.
Ed added: “It’s key for us to welcome as many different trusts onto our free trial as possible, so we can understand the variety of challenges that procurement teams in different parts of the NHS face.
“We want to work collaboratively to help them drive continued efficiencies with the procurement process, ultimately saving trusts time and money.”
To find out more about Framespan, please email info@framespan.com or, if you are an NHS trust and would like to sign up for the trial, visit: www.framespan.com
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