Fourth senior departure from NHS procurement body

Matt Oxley was CCO at the organisation for a little more than a year, having joined in August 2019. His departure follows the resignation two weeks ago of Jin Sahota, the former chief executive of the state-owned company set up to manage NHSSC. Two more executives are due to leave NHSSC, one in October and another in March next year.

Mr Oxley left the organisation on 30 September “as a result of work we have done to revise our corporate strategy to meet the evolving needs of the NHS,” a spokeswoman told HSJ.

“We are reconfiguring the commercial team to embed its activities into the areas of the organisation which are accountable for specific contracts. We believe that this will enhance our partnership working through single lines of accountability.”

On 19 September HSJ revealed Mr Sahota had resigned as CEO of Supply Chain Coordination Ltd, which is owned by the Department of Health and Social Care and was set up to manage NHSSC. A spokeswoman said it had been “a personal decision” that came “at the conclusion of his assignment to NHS Supply Chain”.

HSJ also reported that Howard Blackith, chief information officer, will leave on 9 October to take up a post at the telecoms firm Ericsson, and Stephen Foulser, the customer director, would leave the agency at the end of his three-year contract in March.

News of these senior departures comes eight weeks after HSJ revealed Supply Chain Coordination Ltd had been put under review by the government. HSJ was told the Cabinet Office was assisting a DHSC-led review of SCCL.

Both NHSCC and SCCL came in for sustained criticism during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. NHSSC, which procures common consumables for trusts, had been “managing demand” for key items of personal protective equipment in the early stages of the pandemic.

Trusts had complained of PPE shortages and unpredictable deliveries, with one trust procurement lead describing the situation as “completely chaotic” in March. By April, a new national portal was set up to manage covid-specific deliveries run by private logistics firm Clipper.