Department of Health announces fully funded demonstrator sites at NHS Confed

Last week, at NHS Confed, the Department of Health announced it will provide direct support to six acute NHS trusts in England to act as demonstrator sites.

The aim of these sites will be to demonstrate the true costs, challenges and resultant opportunities and benefits that arise from adopting the core enablers and primary use cases for GS1 standards.

In 2014, the Department of Health mandated the use of GS1 barcoding standards in the eProcurement strategy, which are also integral to Personalised health and care 2020. 

GS1 UK is a not-for-profit standards organisation, working with the Department of Health, NHS England and industry to drive the adoption of a more efficient, safer and more compliant way of working from the procurement to care at the bedside – achieved through the unique identification of every person, every product and every place. 

Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health, took to the main stage and underlined the importance of the long-term and sustainable efficiencies required to support our NHS – not only in procurement, but across the patient pathway.

The NHS now needs to deliver its side of the bargain, which is to make significant efficiency savings.”

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt, Secretary of State for Health

 

These efficiencies, that the Secretary of State for Health so enthusiastically spoke about, are already being achieved by some NHS Trusts who are adopting GS1 barcoding standards. And so much more can be delivered as GS1 standards become more widely adopted across our entire NHS.

This demonstrator site activity will give invaluable insight into the practical challenges and opportunities of adopting GS1 standards in a live healthcare environment, an invaluable measure of objective metrics. It will also provide a true validation of the real costs and benefits at Trusts.

A major output of the demonstrator site activity will be clear guidance and best practice and UK based exemplars for other NHS Trusts.

The GS1 UK Healthcare Conference 2015 is being staged this week, where Department of Health officials will join senior delegates from NHS Trusts, NHS England and industry. This gives those that are responsible for driving this transformational change – from all corners of healthcare – the perfect platform to discuss the Department of Health’s announcement in more detail.

Read more about our role in healthcare.