The challenge
NHS Pharmacy Aseptic Services in the North East and North Cumbria (NENC) provide controlled environments to produce injectable medicines and parenteral nutrition. The supply of injectable medicines across NENC is not on a sustainable footing: there is an urgent need for change due to a fragile supply chain. Each NHS Trust has a varying capacity to produce aseptic medicines and the commercial market for pre-prepared injectables has become increasingly fragile which has resulted in varying provision to patients and staff across the region. NECS was asked to improve the provision of aseptic medicines in the region by assessing the potential to centralise production.
Our response
NECS developed a Strategic Outline Case and an outline business case (OBC) to be submitted to MHSE to apply for £29.7m of funding to produce a centralised facility to provide aseptic medicine.
NECS led the delivery of this business case and assembled a team from across the region consisting of experts in finance, HR, estates, quality control and assurance, production, Chief Pharmacists and nursing. NENC was the conduit between all experts and with directors from both NHSE and DHSC which put NENC at the forefront of development of aseptics strategy nationally.
A detailed financial business case and commercial strategy was also developed to ensure the model was both viable and delivered a return on investment for both NHSE, and ensured every FT with NENC would have a positive financial outcome from the investment. A comprehensive project plan incorporating all functions was developed, including build costs to RIBA stage 4, was produced to ensure the targets for NHSE would be met.
Outcomes
The Full Business Case for the new Medicines Manufacturing Centre was approved by NHSE and the NENC received central funding of £29.7m. This funding provided the total capital cost of implementing the new facility as a result NENC will now build the largest aseptics manufacturing centre within the NHS. This will ensure that the supply of chemotherapy medicines in NENC is on a secure footing. The centre will also provide up to 1m injectable antibiotics to the region, meaning we free up over 200,000 hours of nursing time.