As an organisation based across various sites in East Kent that sources product internationally as well as locally, the EU Exit in January requires a lot of planning.

Different parts of the business continue to work hard to make sure that the effects of the Britain’s exit from the EU remains a minimal as possible. Perhaps the two main areas of the business that are most affected are procurement and logistics.

Here are some of the things the teams have been doing to prepare for the EU Exit.

Procurement

The procurement team has been making sure that supplies and materials will be available – especially where there may be short-term transport disruption. The preparations include:

• Making sure that there is additional stock of patient meals.
• Additional storage facilities for our three acute sites to hold extra food stock. This includes added freezer storage.
• Additional two-week stock of ‘fast moving’ consumables, meaning there is four weeks’ worth of stock available.
• PPE to have a 28-day stock reserve instead of the average 21 days.
• The Procurement Assurance Group to review/approve alternative items in the event of product shortages.

Logistics

The logistics team are also in readiness for any disruptions that may occur on our county’s roads during this time, as we saw throughout December with the Covid-19 pandemic and boarder closures. Peter Shannon, Transport Solutions Manager, makes sure that his team of drivers are in the best possible position to be able to carry out their deliveries and collections.  With 18 full time drivers and 11 part time drivers utilised to cover 21 runs, it’s vital this part of the business keeps moving. We also have:

• Three team leaders on the main sites who can be contacted to handle any on site issues and advise of any problem in logistics.
• A spare van and driver sited at each main site to assist with delivery/collection in the event of delays.
• Set up an instant messaging group with pharmacy in order that any delay with nuclear or aseptic medicine can be managed and all concerned informed.

Peter Shannon said:

“We collect from about 140 surgeries/clinics daily on some runs as much as 5 times a day. To make sure that we can keep a track of all of this in real-time, the Transport Hub based at Royal Victoria Hospital is fully operational with a tracking system that allows us to track the vehicles real time and also report any traffic delays or disruption instantly. The team leaders also have this as a mobile app they can access.”

Providing services to EKHUFT no matter what

These are just some of the preparations that 2gether Support Solutions have been working on to make sure that we keep our hospital services running no matter what issues are presented during the EU Exit. Our employees have also been working hard during the covid-19 pandemic to make sure that all support services to East Kent Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) continue.