HealthShare NSW’s Procurement & Supply Chain Medical Equipment team have won the Supplier Collaboration & Innovation category at the prestigious Asia Pacific Procurement Awards in Singapore this week.

The team were recognised using their procurement expertise to turn their customers’ visions of delivering mobile dental and CT scanning health services to socially vulnerable communities into a reality.

Collaborating for communities

The Procurement & Supply Chain Medical Equipment team’s first foray into mobile health solutions came through their work with the NSW Ministry of Health’s Centre for Oral Health Services (COHS) in 2019.

COHS needed assistance to procure 21 mobile dental clinics to enable equitable access for all NSW public school students to a comprehensive dental screening service.

Using in-house medical equipment expertise, collaboration, and strong working relationships with COHS and the supplier, the team were able to deliver the vans, with the first one going live in July 2020.

More than 200,000 public school students across NSW have so far received comprehensive dental care through NSW Health’s Primary Schools Mobile Dental Program.

Following the success of the dental vans, the team were tasked with designing NSW’s first ever mobile CT scanner. They worked Western NSW Local Health District on specifications for what the vehicle would look like, how it would operate, and the required technology. The team travelled to the regional and remote locations in NSW to understand where the new vehicle could be located at each site, the services to be provided to the vehicle and the patient access pathways.

The van was launched in May 2023 and, in the first week of operation, more than 50 patients were reached by specialised CT services in regional and remote areas including Aboriginal communities.

The van is expected to see around 1,500 per year and will be used for non-emergency patients to help diagnose causes of pain from muscles and joints, detect disease or prepare patients for treatment or surgery.

Recognition by the judging panel

The Asia Pacific Procurement Awards awards are judged by an esteemed judging panel of leading procurement experts and senior representatives from organisations such as Asian Development Bank, Indosat, Accenture, and Tata Communications. Feedback from the judging panel was overwhelmingly positive.

As one judge said, ‘A great example of supplier innovation solving a specific problem and creating a great outcome in partnership with procurement.’

Another added, ‘They’ve done so much for the healthcare of the New South Wales communities, collaborating well with local authorities to embed their joint actions.’

A year of success

The win closes off a successful year for the Procurement and Supply Chain teams who were also winners at this year’s NSW Health Awards and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply Australia New Zealand.