Supporting the DHSC Peppol Mandate in England
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Chris Heavey, Senior Market Manager
“Implementing the Peppol standards is an integral part of our NHS eProcurement Strategy and will create significant efficiency and quality gains that will benefit patients.”
In 2014, as part of its Scan4Safety initiative, the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) announced the adoption of Peppol as the standard for e-Procurement within NHS England.
For technology and service providers, this has meant ensuring their suppliers and providers can exchange electronic documents, such as e-invoices, purchase orders and purchase order acknowledgments, to the same consistent standard.
At GHX, we believe that providing reliable, highly secure healthcare procurement goes beyond just connecting customers to the Peppol eDelivery Network.
As a Peppol Service Provider, we have been working closely with our customers, some of the largest medical device suppliers in Europe, to help them transact in line with Peppol specifications, but also in compliance with the additional requirements set by the DHSC.
These state that providers must use unique location identifiers (GLNs) so that suppliers can reliably identify a trading partners’ location, reducing the risk of lost or delayed orders which can significantly impact patient care and safety.
On the other side, suppliers must have the ability to provide Purchase Order Acknowledgements (POA), to confirm that orders have been received and processed.
GHX fully supports the DHSC’s mandate for suppliers and providers wishing to transact via the Peppol eDelivery Network, which aligns closely with our own operational standards based on over 20 years’ experience as a healthcare procurement specialist.
We believe these specifications and related standards are necessary to help improve accuracy and efficiency across the supply chain network and support improved reliability and patient safety within the healthcare industry.
As other countries roll out the adoption of Peppol, we will be working closely with other members of the OpenPeppol AISBL community to help define and set the standard for all healthcare transactions across Europe.