Philip Hollobone – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-10-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on the provision of medical supplies to NHS facilities in (a) Northamptonshire, (b) the East Midlands and (c) England of the introduction of the new IT system at NHS Supply Chain’s Regional Distribution Centre in Rugby.

George Freeman

NHS Supply Chain services are delivered by a logistics partner DHL, under the management of NHS Business Services Authority. DHL has been upgrading the main logistics IT system across its warehousing network and on 5 October 2015 commenced the upgrade at its warehouse in Rugby. Various technical issues have been encountered and, as a result, DHL has had to implement contingency measures.

Whilst there has been an administrative impact on some National Health Service trusts, we are not aware of any impact on ‘front line services’ in Northamptonshire and the East Midlands – the area served by the Rugby warehouse. DHL has been able to meet requirements from its remaining network and it expects all current issues to be resolved by 23 October 2015. When the issues have been resolved the NHS Business Services Authority will then address any ‘due compensation’ to NHS trusts affected.