North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust has retained Lifecycle Management Group to deliver procurement and contract management services.
Lifecycle will manage a portfolio of 330 Medical, IT and Estates & Facilities maintenance and services contracts with an annual spend of £3.7m. In addition to managing procurement and renewal of these contracts to deliver procurement savings, Lifecycle will also take responsibility for managing and policing delivery of maintenance visits, ensuring visits happen to schedule and service sheets are recorded and fully accessible online.
The neighbouring Trust, Morecambe Bay, had retained Lifecycle for over six years to manage a similar contract portfolio.
A recent internal audit at North Cumbria had highlighted concerns about a lack of focus on managing external contracts, resulting in contacts lapsing, assets not being maintained, and the likelihood of excess spend. The procurement team (led by the Morecambe Bay procurement team) was tasked with carrying out a review of all external spend. Morecambe Bay retained Lifecycle to conduct an audit of North Cumbria’s entire contract portfolio. Lifecycle assimilated all the data, verified it with individual suppliers and itemised every contract to asset level. Lifecycle then loaded every contract to OPTIMiSe, their online contract management system, creating a centralised view of all contracts across both Trusts.
Following the successful conclusion of the review, Lifecycle were retained to deliver a full procurement and contract management service for those contracts. The agreement is for three years.
