7 December 2023
In November, Procurement and Supply Chain professionals from BSO PaLS attended the annual Health Care Supply Association (HCSA) Winter Conference 2023. HCSA is the professional association for UK NHS Procurement and Supply Chain Professionals, and as well promoting the good work, they also provide networking, and learning and development opportunities for the profession.
NI were represented on stage at Day 2 of the conference, when Linda O’Hare, Assistant Director – Procurement, BSO PaLS, was asked to present an overview on “Procurement and Supply Chain within Health and Social Care NI”. Linda spoke about the NI landscape, the BSO PaLS delivery model, and how our people contribute to our successes, despite the challenges we have faced since Covid and Brexit. She described two major recent successes for Procurement, in eliminating off-framework agency nursing expenditure, and the PaLS Procurement contributions to Digital Transformation programmes in HSC, including encompass, equip, NIDIS, NIPACS+ and CoreLIMS.
Pictured above: Linda O’Hare, Assistant Director – Procurement BSO PaLS
The team who were successfully awarded the recent Procurement for agency nursing recruitment were delighted to have been shortlisted for an award in the “Cross Functional Collaboration” Category, which has eliminated off-contract expenditure across HSC. There were 17 national entries for this category and only 6 were shortlisted. There was huge excitement while waiting on the announcement of the winner, but unfortunately, we didn’t bring home the prize on the night. However, to be shortlisted in such a competitive national category was an amazing achievement for the team, and they deserve a huge congratulations.
BSO PaLS are also represented on the HCSA National Council by Angela McCormick, Head of Goods and Services Procurement and this helps BSO PaLS to be assured that we are working in line with our national NHS Procurement and Supply Chain colleagues. HCSA also run an annual Personal Development Programme (PDP), and in 2023, BSO PaLS were offered two places on the programme, which were taken up by Flo Carter, and Ryan Huston. Flo and Ryan are definitely procurement stars of the future, and their attendance on the PDP programme allowed them to attend the conference. They really embraced the experience and now have a whole new network of professional colleagues across the UK.
A few pictures from the gala dinner……..
Pictured above L-R: Kyle McCauley, Shannon Sinclair, Gerry Gormley – the team were shortlisted for an award on the night
Pictured above L-R: In attendance at the event, Lesley Young, Director of Operations; Jonathan Semple, Assistant Director – Supply Chain; Linda O’Hare, Assistant Director – Procurement
Pictured above L-R: Ryan Huston, Michael Houston, Flo Carter, Shannon Sinclair, Angela McCormick, Jonathan Semple, Gerry Gormley
Pictured above L-R: Michael Houston, Kyle McCauley, Ryan Huston, Jonathan Semple, Tina Beckett, Myles O’Hagan, Shannon Sinclair, Gerry Gormley