Covid-19 Hub
Covid-19 Hub
As a pioneer in creating Europe’s largest digital procurement ecosystem for hospital and healthcare – bringing together purchasing managers of hospitals and healthcare institutions across Europe and welcoming procurement enthusiasts from other parts of the world, Health Proc Europe is responding to Europe-wide enquiries due to the COVID-19 crisis and is drawing valuable insights for the national and international supply chain.
COVID-19 has revealed some real weakness in our global health supply chains. Just-in-time ordering and lean systems are great, when things are going well. But in a time of crisis it means we don’t have any reserves. If a hospital or a country runs out of facemasks, or personal protective equipment, there’s no warehouse full of boxes that we can go to get more. You have to order more from the supplier, wait for them to produce it, and you have to wait for them to ship it – generally from China. That’s a time lag, in a time when it’s most important to move quickly.
The current state of emergency clearly means that information on supply and demand is extremely important and should not be underestimated.
Existing means, such as platforms, should be used in a more targeted way to achieve the needed transparency.
Below we’ve curated the most important links in response to COVID-19:
Procurement Initiatives
- COVID-19 related tenders
- Securing adequate stock of protective equipment and essential medical products
- European standards for medical supplies made freely available to facilitate increase of production
- Guidance from the European Commission on using the public procurement framework in the emergency situation related to the COVID-19 crisis
- RemedyMatch is a non-profit donation platform that brings together the supply and demand for medical protection and relief items throughout Germany. Currently our solution is in the middle of construction and we are happy to receive numerous donations. Every glove counts!
- Rapid emergency supplier search for critical and scarce items such as surgical masks, protective suits, cotton swabs and more by scoutbee.
- BME is preparing an ePitching session.