Meeting report: optimising procurement of continence pads

On 28 June 2019, the British Journal of Nursing (BJN) and Ontex held a round table on the procurement of disposable continence pad devices. The aims were to demystify the process surrounding formulary development and procurement, and to describe how nurses can establish good working relationships with finance, procurement departments and commissioners when formulating a tender.

The panel included a continence service lead and advanced clinical nurse specialist, a director of continence services, a clinical governance lead who was formerly a nurse consultant in continence, a continence care nurse, a continence care nurse manager, a clinical evaluation and implementation manager at the NHS Supply Chain and a senior category manager at the NHS Supply Chain. Panel members came from England and Wales, and represented both the acute and community sectors. Topics discussed included:

The panel agreed that, in their experience, the inclusion of items on formulary was decided by nurses, within a set budget, based on the clinical needs of a patient population with moderate to severe incontinence. Community formularies are more extensive than acute ones.