Frimley, 2013-Feb-26
Peter Harrison, Managing Director UK, voices Siemens Healthcare’s support of AXrEM’s concerns regarding the fair use of framework agreements in the UK.
AXrEM has identified growing evidence that some frameworks are operated with limited engagement from the supplier or purchasing community, and have not been established with clarity of scope.
A recent example for concern includes a Framework for Maintenance of Medical Equipment where only two suppliers were appointed. In this specific case, no Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) were successfully engaged, believed to be due to the lack of transparency and manner in which the opportunity was advertised.
Peter Harrison, Managing Director UK at Siemens Healthcare states, “Framework operators typically seek to leverage scale economies and bulk purchasing power to secure the lowest cost to buyers. We absolutely support competition, but scale economy and buying power are clearly diluted if there are too many frameworks with overlapping scope.”
Peter Harrison continues, “We are concerned that certain private entities or NHS organisations seek to establish frameworks with an unclear mandate, typically evidenced by an open-ended list of framework participants on the buy side. If established with limited supply side engagement, there is a danger they fail to leverage competition when offering a procurement channel to buyers.”
“We believe it is important that buyers have access to the competitive medical imaging landscape. The danger is that Trusts perceive that by using a framework they have fulfilled obligations to entertain a range of competitive offerings,” Peter Harrison concludes. “Clearly, healthcare providers need to ensure that any procurement is compliant and that they are trading through a legitimate framework that ensures provision of a range of competitive offerings. Beyond restricted choice, the ultimate risk is that contracts awarded under such frameworks are subjected to procurement challenge.”
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The Siemens Healthcare Sector is one of the world's largest suppliers to the healthcare industry and a trendsetter in medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, medical information technology and hearing aids. Siemens offers its customers products and solutions for the entire range of patient care from a single source – from prevention and early detection to diagnosis, and on to treatment and aftercare. By optimising clinical workflows for the most common diseases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, better and more cost-effective. Siemens Healthcare employs some 51,000 employees worldwide and operates around the world. For further information please visit: http://www.siemens.co.uk/healthcare..
