Delivering a timely boost to the UK’s health sector

The UK’s healthcare system is creaking, across primary, community and secondary settings.

 

The NHS is reeling from long waiting lists that are in part a legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic, and which were compounded by a series of strikes between 2022 and 2024.

 

The Nuffield Trust estimates there’s a £4.8 billion unfunded shortfall in the NHS England revenue budget for 2024-25. But at the same time, the pressure on hospitals is greater than ever, with an ageing population and a failing social care system that sees elderly people confined to hospitals rather than being cared for in the community.

 

The burden the NHS is under is also filtering into other areas. Private hospitals have picked up some of the workload, whether directly from overwhelmed NHS trusts or indirectly from patients looking for quicker alternatives to treatment. But these, too, are under pressure because of increased demand, and often rely on resources that are shared with the NHS. The social care system, meanwhile, is suffering from staff shortages and local councils that are increasingly unable to afford the cost of care.

 

For those working in procurement teams in the healthcare sector, the current environment represents a challenging situation. Amazon Business’s 2025 State of Procurement Report finds procurement professionals in the UK are more likely to report rising costs as a concern than their counterparts in Spain, France, Italy and Germany. But it’s also an opportunity to make a difference and demonstrate the value procurement can bring to the bottom line.

 

While much of the NHS’s procurement is conducted through its own procurement system, including a new central digital platform, created as part of the Procurement Act 2023, which went live in February 2025, this is not the case for private providers, social care businesses or GP practices.

 

Many procurement professionals in the healthcare space find their time is taken up with large-ticket items that are vital to successful patient outcomes, negotiating high-value contracts with preferred suppliers that will ensure the right equipment is available at the right price. Examples include scanners or X-ray machines, as well as complicated tools or machines required for difficult operations.

 

But much of what organisations procure are the essential items that are required by any organisation to function effectively. Healthcare organisations need stationery, IT systems and equipment, furniture, cleaning equipment and bathroom consumables.

 

Traditionally, such items have been overlooked as under-resourced teams focus more on the larger-value items, but these can add up to large amounts of money. As a result, those who need items have tended to buy their own equipment as and when required, with individuals often bypassing procurement altogether, and claiming purchases back through expenses.

 

Not only does this mean procurement has no idea of what is being bought and whether it is overpaying for items that could be found cheaper elsewhere, it also means organisations can end up with large numbers of suppliers.

 

This leads to further issues; such suppliers may not conform to quality or sustainability standards, and purchasing through multiple different businesses creates inefficiencies when it comes to invoices, handling expenses or making payments.

 

This was the case for private community health and social care provider HCRG Care Group, which found it had around 2,000 suppliers and was increasingly unable to provide the support that was needed for staff to deliver urgent care. “Our biggest challenge was the admin side of everything,” says Alex Blatherwick, Head of Procurement. “We only spent £200 a year with many of these suppliers.”

 

The business sought to consolidate its activities by partnering with Amazon Business, providing those who needed to make purchases with a single system they could use, and one with which they were familiar from their personal lives.

 

This has not only led to reducing the number of suppliers but also generated time savings for the procurement team, which means it is able to focus more on higher-value purchases and more strategic initiatives.

 

It also means it can better meet the demands of public sector procurement. The Procurement Act, for instance, puts a strong emphasis on both social value and supporting small businesses, and private providers taking on NHS work are expected to comply with such mandates.

 

“The efficiency savings we have made by consolidating our supplier list using Amazon Business means that we have more time within the procurement team to spend on projects, tenders and strategy,” says Blatherwick. “By reducing our supply base, we have simplified our processes, lowered cyber-security risks and can more easily abide by NHS standards.”

 

Making buying easier for the care staff has also helped to improve productivity and customer service. “The less time they’re spending trying to obtain goods, the more time they can spend serving patients,” he adds. “There’s more pressure coming on them so if we can do more to help them, that’s to the benefit of everyone.”

 

There are other benefits for procurement to having more control over spend. Buying through a single marketplace such as Amazon Business means procurement can gain insight into what they are spending and where and how this is changing over time. This can then be the starting point for further analysis, which could identify opportunities to consolidate, reduce or eliminate spend.

 

Accurate information is vital if this is to be achieved. Already 65 per cent of procurement professionals use analytics or tools to understand performance, trends, data and insights, according to Amazon Business’s 2025 State of Procurement Report. In the UK, 32 per cent are interested in the potential of artificial intelligence to help with advanced data analytics, which could enable procurement to further identify opportunities, such as predicting future demand and pricing.

 

The pressure on UK healthcare professionals is unlikely to ease any time soon, and procurement will continue to be tasked with identifying cost savings and more efficient ways of working. Taking advantage of tools that already exist which can help do this is more important now than ever before.

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To find out more about how Amazon Business could help your organisation get more control over spend, visit business.amazon.co.uk/en/work-with-us/healthcare