Benefits of a partnership approach made clear

Speaking on the first day of Healthcare Estates 2018, Cliff Jones, the Department of Health and Social Care’s ProCure22 Framework lead, reflected on the considerable achievements to date – in areas including cost and efficiency savings and strong partnership working – of the ProCure22 Framework, and looked ahead to ‘some of the next steps’ as the framework further develops. As HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports, the joint presentation also saw contributions from session chair, Omar Jomeen, Healthcare director at Galliford Try, Lewis Parker, director – Health, at Kier Strategic Frameworks & Alliances, and Jason Dawson, Proton Beam Therapy director of Capital at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.

Opening the presentation, Cliff Jones said the aim was to give delegates a good feel for what had already been achieved under the ProCure22 Framework, but stressed that its success was attributable not only to the efforts of he and his team within the Department of Health and Social Care, but equally to those in the supply chain, ‘and many individuals and organisations in the NHS’. He said: “If I had to encapsulate the thinking behind ProCure22, I would say the framework is all about effective collaboration and sharing at all levels of the supply chain. We have suppliers and manufacturers who help us – just as the NHS does – and we have engaged too with patients and clinicians in developing some of the initiatives that we are now implementing and will continue to progress.” He added: “That includes the Repeatable Rooms and Standard Components that were developed in the past, and now the Post-Occupancy Evaluation and the Government Soft Landings processes, both of which will be used not only by the DH, but also by other Government departments.” 

He went on to explain that the ProCure22 Framework ‘sits under’ the Department of Health and Social Care’s Efficiency & Productivity Programme; this work, he explained, operated through a ‘partnership group’ which he chairs with the supply chains. “At the end of the day, he told delegates, “ProCure22 is about improved outcomes – for patients, businesses, and healthcare. We are not investing in buildings just for the sake of it.”