Discretionary Spend Controls

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, North East and Yorkshire, Acute

The problem 

The E-procurement team must reduce non-pay spend on goods and services classified as non-essential to support the Trust’s financial plan of achieving a surplus budget by the end of the financial year without compromising patient care. Failure to do so could lead to a negative impact on the Trust’s finances and patient care.

The challenge 

How might we reduce the non-pay costs of the organisation in a safe and controlled manner so that patient care is not impacted.

The outputs

  • Reduction in discretionary spend compared to Month 1 forecast
  • Quality impact assessed (QIA) scheme to ensure medical and nursing sign off
  • Essential spend continued without impacting on patient care

The outcomes

  • Integrated process within Oracle and the procurement team.
  • Financial savings forecast at £2.1m for this financial year £0.6m YTD savings
  • No impact on ordering essential items

The Innovation

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What the peer-reviewers said

“I really like this innovation, and I plan to recommend we develop our own version at my trust.”

“This innovation has provided framework to monitor, challenge and reduce discretionary spending which has produced cost reductions on baseline values.”

“This innovation enables cost controls to be standardised, makes use of modern tools to make understanding easier.”

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Here are all of the documents and resources related to this innovation