Across the NHS, procurement teams are under unprecedented pressure to reduce non-pay spend, deliver ambitious Cost Improvement Plans (CIPs), and stretch every budget line further than ever before. With financial constraints tightening and workloads increasing, procurement professionals are expected to unlock savings, maintain quality, and support digital transformation - all while having fewer colleagues to share the workload.
Against this backdrop, the question isn’t simply “where can we cut costs?” but rather:
“Where can we reduce spend without compromising patient care or clinical operations - and without adding more strain to already stretched teams?”
One of the strongest answers lies in IT procurement.
IT hardware remains one of the NHS’s highest-volume and highest-variation spend categories. Yet it’s also one of the few areas where Trusts can still generate meaningful, repeatable savings without impacting frontline services. With the right tools, processes, and visibility, procurement teams can reduce IT spend significantly - and do it without reducing quality, specification, or user experience.
The NHS Is Already Focusing on Smarter, Leaner Digital Spend
National programmes are reinforcing the need for more efficient, transparent, and digitally mature procurement:
Centralised procurement & frameworks
- NHS Supply Chain, NHS SBS, and NOE CPC frameworks (including the Tech Devices – Link 4 agreement) provide access to competitively priced IT equipment and easier, standardised purchasing routes.
- Aggregated public-sector buying reduces unnecessary variation and speeds up decision-making.
Unified Tech Fund - The consolidation of national tech funding into a single structure ensures better oversight and prioritisation of digital investment.
MedTech Funding Mandate (MTFM) - Accelerates the adoption of innovations that return measurable cost savings within three years - a clear signal that the NHS values savings backed by evidence.
Digital productivity initiatives - NHS England is investing heavily in:
- Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
- Real-Time Locating Systems (RTLS)
- AI tools for reducing DNAs
- Electronic Patient Records (EPR)
- Cloud optimisation and software rationalisation
These programmes embody the principle of reducing cost and waste without compromising care - something modern procurement approaches can directly support.
Why IT Procurement Holds So Much Cost-Saving Potential
IT spend is uniquely positioned to deliver fast, measurable savings because:
- Price variation is huge. Identical SKUs can vary massively across suppliers.
- Discounts are often hidden. Sector entitlements, vendor bids, and volume benefits usually sit buried in distributor systems.
- Manual sourcing burns time. Procurement teams spend too long comparing prices, managing quotes, and validating suppliers.
- Budgets leak via unmanaged purchasing. Ad-hoc orders, inconsistent suppliers, and lack of visibility drive up total cost.
When budgets are tight and expectations are high, these inefficiencies compound, costing Trusts far more than necessary.
How Digital Procurement Platforms Deliver Cost Savings Without Compromise
Across the NHS, Trusts are increasingly turning to digital procurement platforms to save money, reduce admin, and increase control - without affecting the standard of equipment they buy.
The benefits typically include:
Real-time price comparison - Live distributor feeds eliminate the need for manual benchmarking, allowing you to instantly identify the best value.
Sector-specific pricing - NHS-aligned pricing is automatically surfaced, ensuring Trusts benefit from healthcare entitlements every time.
Pre-discounted catalogues - Access to centrally negotiated catalogues (50–70 per month in some systems) consolidates entitlement pricing into one place, avoiding overpayment.
Vendor-supported special bids - High-value or project-based purchases often secure 20–30% additional discounts when vendor bid pricing is applied.
Dynamic basket optimisation - Intelligent basket technology identifies volume or value thresholds and applies instant savings during checkout.
Reduced administrative burden - Automation cuts the time spent on manual quote requests, benchmarking, and governance checks - vital for teams facing increased workload with fewer resources.
Strong governance & auditability - Procurement Act 2023 expectations around transparency, competition, and value are easier to meet when every quote, comparison, and decision is digitally tracked.
Crucially, these savings do not rely on buying lower-spec devices or compromising on clinical quality. They prevent waste, not value.
Savings That Scale Across the NHS
Evidence from public-sector procurement shows that digital purchasing tools consistently deliver:
- Up to 25% annual savings on IT hardware through consolidated catalogues
- 20–30% project savings through vendor-supported special bids
- Hundreds of thousands saved monthly across large customer groups
- Significant time released back to procurement teams through automation
- Better compliance through built-in governance and audit-ready records
At a time when the NHS is expected to deliver more with less, this combination of cost reduction + efficiency + compliance is becoming indispensable.
Doing More With Less - Without Compromising Care
As budgets tighten and workloads grow, NHS procurement professionals are being asked to drive savings while also supporting digital transformation and maintaining service quality.
Smarter IT procurement offers a rare win-win:
- Lower costs without reduced quality
- Less admin with more governance
- More visibility with less supplier complexity
- More time to focus on strategic priorities
It’s one of the few levers Trusts can pull that delivers immediate, measurable value without touching clinical frontlines.
A helpful next step
If your Trust is exploring ways to reduce IT spend while improving procurement efficiency, the Probrand Procurement Platform may be helpful. It’s free to use for NHS organisations and aligned to NHS frameworks. You can book a short demo here:
Free to use. Easy to manage. Designed for control.
Future-ready IT Procurement Starts Here
Probrand’s Procurement Platform helps IT and procurement teams take charge of their IT buying to ensure improved auditability and streamlined purchasing.
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