A National Ambulance Service
The purpose of the Scottish Ambulance Service is to provide Scotland with a national ambulance service by delivering a comprehensive range of services covering accident and emergency, non-emergency and other associated services. In 2001 - 2002 Scottish Ambulance Service accident and emergency staff dealt with over half a million patients.
Its non emergency service undertook over 2.2 million non-emergency journeys, nearly 3,000 air ambulance missions and the ambulances drove over 26 million miles in response to the many needs of patients throughout Scotland. Incredibly it took an average of only 9.5 minutes to respond to emergency calls across the many different terrains in Scotland.
Scottish Ambulance Service Goes Live
The Scottish Ambulance Service eProcurement project was launched on 1st November 2002 after an extensive analysis of the costs and benefits to the Service. The Service identified a range of benefits to be obtained through implementing the eProcurement Scotl@nd (ePS) service which included:
- Releasing front line staff time for patient care
- Improved financial controls
- Savings (both cash releasing and reductions in processing time)
The Scottish Ambulance Service Finance Director, Pauline Moore, commented "I am delighted that this key strand of the Service's ICT Strategy is now being implemented. By summer 2004 eProcurement will be available to ambulance staff across Scotland and its Islands, allowing easier ordering and access to goods and generating savings for reinvestment in patient services."
Scottish Ambulance Service Roll-out Plan
To realise the benefits of eProcurement SAS has set itself an aggressive roll-out plan with operational staff being targeted in the first phase. The first phase addresses a relatively straightforward area where the proportion of spend already under contract is high and requirements are fairly homogenous, so setting up catalogues is a fairly simple process. In addition, this will capture a large section of spend early on, so it can be regarded as a "quick win". Further roll-out phases address more complex areas, such as Fleet Services workshops and other departments.
South East Division (covering the Lothians and the Borders) went live on 1st May, and ePS is now available in ambulance stations in this area. East Central Division (Fife, Tayside and Forth Valley) went live on 1st July. North East Division (Grampian, Orkney & Shetland) will be going live on 1st September. Work has also started with North West Division (Highlands & Islands) which is due to go live on 1st November. All six Divisions are scheduled to be live by spring 2004, with remaining departments and the Scottish Ambulance College joining the service by summer 2004.
Suppliers
SAS has developed its links with a range of suppliers as part of the roll-out programme.
A total of 14 catalogue suppliers are now loaded onto the system and work is ongoing to extend this number. A further 24 suppliers have been added for non-catalogue and blanket orders.
Catalogue suppliers cover a range of medical suppliers such as Laerdal Medical, Ferno, and Surgical Supplies, together with other consumables suppliers including Guilbert, Bunzl and Ricoh Print (Scotland). Work with potential 'punch-out' suppliers in the IT sector is underway.
What do the Users Think?
The system has been well received by users and a recent survey showed 90% of users rated the service as good or better. Feedback from users included the following positive comments:
- "Found it easy to use"
- "I have found ePS to be very user friendly"
- "Saves time, money and provides more detailed information, easy to access"
Integrating with legacy systems . . .
The Scottish Ambulance Service has successfully interfaced PECOS (the core procurement application software provided with the ePS service) with its finance system with minimal disruption. This enables invoices to be entered in PECOS and exported to the finance system for payment. SAS will shortly begin working on a batch requisitioning interface to enable the Fleet Services department to use an integrated fleet system that orders through PECOS.
More information . . .
To obtain further information relating to this article on the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Government implementation of the eProcurement Scotl@nd service please contact:
Jenny Lile
Head of Procurement
Scottish Ambulance Service
If you would like further general information on the ePS service or would like to receive future eProcurement Scotl@nd Newsletters, please contact the eProcurement Scotl@nd Service Desk