PPE Supply Implementation Project Board minutes: November 2022

Attendees and apologies

Scottish Government

• Alan Morrison (Chair) (AM)
• Graeme Cook (GC)
• Ruth Paterson (RP)
• Frances MacKay (FM)
• Marie Murray (Secretariat) (MM)

NHS NSS National Procurement

• Gordon Beattie (GB)
• Iain Main (IM)
• Matt Thomas (MT)

Apologies

• Mike Healy (MH

Items and actions

Welcome

AM welcomed members to the meeting. There were no requests to add any extra items to the agenda. AM apologised for the lateness of the paper, as the team were awaiting receipt of recent procurement data.

Minutes from 10 October 2022 and outstanding actions

Previous minutes were approved, and an update was given on the ongoing action from previous minutes  A meeting with Solace is to be arranged via the social care resilience team and the board will be updated on the status of this meeting. In progress

Costings and finance options to supply PPE to NHS acute and public sector bodies

Paper 1 costings and finance options paper

FM presented the options to the board and gave a brief description of each of the four options and the risks involved in each.

This was then discussed at length by the board members and the general consensus was to recommend option two. This involves a lower budgetary commitment for buy in to produce a platform from which PPE can be supplied on a business as usual and pandemic footing, providing a greater level of PPE resilience for the public sector. This also offers more opportunity for the turnover of stock which will reduce wastage. 

There was a discussion about the costings within the model being based on pallet delivery when there has been feedback that smaller parcels would be preferred for some organisations. A mechanism for providing smaller consignments via distributors was discussed.

The general agreement was that the expected overall costs are low for provision of PPE to public sector organisations, however the administration of invoices may be higher than is expected to recover expense. There was discussion about whether the costs of recovery should be avoided by supplying the PPE free of charge. 

There was also discussion of the viability of including private social care within the collaborative buying arrangements, given the legal, administrative and logistical hurdles.

This paper will now be taken through the final relevant approval processes.

Some changes to the paper were suggested prior to those processes to give greater clarity.

Action: FM to make the required changes.

AM asked for an agreement that option two provided the best solution. All were in agreement.  AM will discuss with the Director of Health Finance before making the final approval submission.

Risk discussion

The risks register was presented and relevant updates given.

Timeline amendments

The implementation project team has updated the timeline due to delays in obtaining reliable data and resource availability.

Date of next meeting

The next meeting of the PPE implementation project board has been arranged for 22 February 2023

Any other business

None