NHS PASA to close

Tue, 12 May 2009

NHS PASA, the health service’s purchasing and supply agency is to be closed within the next 12 months. In a move that will have major ramifications for healthcare recruiters, it is to be replaced by a more commercially focused regime.

PASA’s functions will be taken on by Buying Solutions, and a series of regional support units owned by the NHS. These units will provide a single point of contact to suppliers in each region.

Commenting on the decision, Mark Britnell, director of Commissioning and System Management, at the Department of Health,  says that transferring NHS PASA’s functions to other organisations “can add greater scope, scale and impact to the procurement of goods and services”.

Kate Bleasdale, executive vice chairman at Healthcare Locums, told Recruiter that the closure of PASA was positive news.

“Replacing PASA with more commercial entities will vastly improve the speed and efficiency with which staffing agencies like HCL can interact with commissioners, which will ultimately result in a better service for hospital managers, healthcare staff and, most importantly, patients.”

Bleasdale adds: “When PASA came in they wanted to contract with agencies who could supply nationally.  PASA was better  for the large agencies and this was at the expense of the small agencies who have been squeezed.

“This is a big opportunity for the smaller specialist agencies to compete. As far as we are concerned, the more the merrier.”

The system of setting charge rates for three years under PASA framework agreements is  “bonkers” Bleasdale adds, because it is inflexible and doesn’t allow for changes in the marketplace.

Louie Evans, managing director of Psychiatry People, told Recruiter that he had concerns about who would regulate health service recruitment and particularly quality assurance, post PASA. 

Evans says that PASA’s demise was probably because of its “them and us” approach. “It very much makes decisions off its own bat,” he says.

Tom Hadley, director of external relations at the REC (Recruitment & Employment Confederation), told Recruiter that the industry had had “a slightly difficult relationship” with PASA, although “it had been getting better over the past few years”.

He says that when replacing PASA, it is important to retain its good points. “PASA has helped improve the quality of supply and the quality of service delivered by agencies,” he says.

On the other hand, he says that PASA had not always enamoured itself with the industry because of its non-consultative approach and a lack of transparency.