Navigating NHS procurement processes: What start-ups need to know

The NHS finds itself in a very challenging place post-COVID, with unprecedented waiting lists, stretched finances, and a staffing crisis. Faced with these challenges, this is the perfect time for the organisation to embrace innovation and transformation.

This is recognised by the NHS, which is actively seeking to identify, support, procure, and adopt new technologies and services that can enable the transformation of care outcomes. So, how can start-ups navigate the NHS procurement process to access the opportunities this has created?

The NHS is a behemoth organisation, employing more than 1.3 million people across the UK and overseeing around 215 NHS trusts in England alone, which accounts for around 80% of all healthcare spending in the UK. But how should start-ups approach working with the institution?

Its scale aside, complex structures within the NHS can make it a difficult target customer for innovative healthcare SMEs and start-ups. However, the institution’s size also creates massive opportunities for SMEs and start-ups who understand how to access them.

When it comes to the procurement of innovation, there are multiple ways for start-ups to approach the NHS. Many believe the best route is the organisation’s main supply chain, although this is often a route taken by some of the health service’s biggest contractors, locking out SMEs in highly specialised fields.

Unfortunately, this is where many start-ups go wrong. They set out to sell to the entire NHS, rather than the sum of its parts, when the reality is the value proposition for each NHS trust may vary. It’s therefore up to SMEs to understand the individual challenges and identify a route to success. 

The NHS is multiple organisations under one banner

Increasingly, the NHS is taking a more localised approach to care, and those hoping to sell to the health service should do the same. Every trust should be understood as an individual customer, particularly as many set their own budgets and have heightened authority over what facilities that budget is spent on, depending on the needs of the patient demographic.

As with any industry, healthcare and life sciences businesses want to be as close to their end users as possible as, ultimately, they are who will benefit most from their products. Taking a local approach can help businesses get to know the end user better and the challenges they face. This enables teams and founders to adapt their products to better service actual needs.

For instance, the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust is home to the Manchester Centre of Clinical Neurosciences (MCCN). Based at Salford Royal, it is one of busiest neurosciences units in the UK.

It therefore makes sense for a new company that specialises in neurology to get on the MCCN’s radar, prove their use case, and establish key evidence metrics. Once this is the case, a business can then accelerate interest across the UK-wide NHS pool, given there are now trusted proof points.

Above all, it’s important to understand that the NHS is consistently open to collaboration and new ideas, and this enthusiasm extends to the service’s many clinicians and practitioners. Start-ups and SMEs should think of these people not just as their end customers, but as advocates, influencers, and collaborators, who can help with improving the product and accessing the procurement process.

Going a step further at the development stage

Often, ‘How To’ guides surrounding NHS procurement recommend obtaining NHS data and insights, so businesses can sense check that they’re fulfilling a genuine need or solving an actual problem. But what if the data proves hard to obtain or a business is more early-stage and not yet ready for procurement?

As part of the NHS’s commitment to removing the barriers to innovation, there are many initiatives and organisations within the health service that continue to prove invaluable to entrepreneurs and new companies – again, at a local level. This includes the Academic Health Science Network, which is made up of 15 smaller networks across England that are responsible for supporting the spread of innovation country wide.

Another organisation within the NHS that has helped many entrepreneurs is the National Clinical Entrepreneur Programme, which was founded by Professor Tony Young OBE, the national clinical lead for innovation at NHS England. Many businesses take this route to get closer to the NHS and often go on to receive investment.

One example of a business we have invested in that has been through the programme is Patchwork, which is helping to solve the NHS staffing crisis through its SaaS-based flexible working solutions. Another is Recourse AI, which has developed an AI-based learning and development platform for healthcare professionals that uses digital avatars to replicate real human interactions.

Other organisations that can help on the procurement journey

Outside of these channels, start-ups and SMEs should make themselves aware of the role of integrated care systems (ICSs), which were given statutory powers and more formal responsibilities towards the end of 2022. There are 42 ICSs across the country, and their role is to plan and commission health services in local areas. They oversee between 500,000 and three million people each and have been set up to improve healthcare and collaboration on a local level.

As well as figureheads from organisations within the NHS, ICSs also include local authority representatives and volunteers, who have a say in local strategies and priorities. These are split across integrated care boards, which receive funding and have recently replaced the older clinical commissioning groups, and integrated care partnerships, which look after strategy. It’s advisable to consider the people involved in a specific ICS in networking efforts, as doing so may provide greater insight into the strategic aims of various regions and the opportunities for innovation.

Innovation is always on the NHS agenda

Above all, the NHS is facing unprecedented pressure, and this is pushing up the demand for innovation, therefore driving up the number of opportunities for start-ups who want to sell to the NHS. Nonetheless, SMEs who engage the NHS need to demonstrate robust outcomes and benefits as well as value for money.

A business must also understand exactly where it sits within the NHS and to what level of care its product is most viable. These complexities and the breadth of the NHS are why collaboration with NHS insiders, including clinicians, development partners, and local stakeholders, is so important.