Internet ordering of medical supplies is alive and well in the United Kingdom’s National Health System.

U.K.-based Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recently completed the first completely electronic order for medical supplies to be processed through the Pan European Public Procurement On-Line, or PEPPOL, messaging standard. The trust oversees the operations of the London Road Community Hospital and the Royal Derby Hospital, which incorporates the Derby Medical School that is run in partnership with the University of Nottingham.

The trust placed the order—for a “Plasmacup Fixation Screw” used in hip replacement operations—with medical products manufacturer B. Braun Medical Ltd. through the Global Health Exchange cloud-based trading exchange, or GHX. The transaction—encompassing a purchase-to-pay system that processes and records the electronic exchange of purchase orders, invoices and related business documents between purchase order and final payment—also used online data management software and services from Healthlogistics.

“We are delighted that the first full PEPPOL order and invoice transaction in the NHS has been sent to B. Braun Medical” using Healthlogistics and GHX, says James Mayne, management of e-procurement, PEPPOL, and GS1 data management operations at Derby Teaching Hospitals. “We see this mechanism delivering great efficiencies throughout our trust supply chain process, which all of our suppliers can benefit from.” Mayne adds that the Derby trust plans to eventually transact 60% of its purchase orders through the PEPPOL, GHX and Healthlogistics system. GS1 is an international nonprofit organization that sets up and manages global trade identification numbers, or GTINs, used to identify products traded in exchanges like GHX as well as in other forms of international online and offline commerce.

The Derby trust also operates as an NHS “Scan4Safety” trust, one of six healthcare trusts serving as a technology demonstration project to bring about improvements in the NHS eProcurement Strategy initiative. The overall initiative is being designed to provide for more efficient and accurate supply chains, with fewer data errors and improved deliveries of medical supplies—in effect, to also provide for improved service to healthcare patients.

“These are challenging but exciting times for the healthcare supply chain and we must all work together to extend the benefits of e-commerce, lower costs and improve the ability to deliver better patient care,” says James Thirkill, country manager, U.K. and Ireland, for GHX. “The eProcurement Strategy sets out a vision for the future for e-commerce in the NHS that will help unlock these benefits and drive the healthcare supply chain in the U.K. to a new level of maturity.”

GHX serves as a trading exchange for more than 1,500 healthcare organizations and 350 suppliers in Europe, and more than 4,100 healthcare providers and 400 manufacturer divisions in North America.
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