Recommendation 7

We asked NHS Supply Chain when it expected to reach 80% market share. NHS Supply Chain first told us that it would not be at 80% until it submitted its business case this summer to NHS England to seek the broader funding required to build the capacity. It described logistical challenges in the south, notably warehousing and having to find between 900,000 and 1.1 million square feet.9 When pushed on whether it could say when it might reach the 80%, NHS Supply Chain said it “would like to see it as soon as possible” but that it was subject to infrastructure requirements and technology modernisation and how fast those could happen. Then it would go through a business case approval process for funding. It said that “As a minimum this will take at least three years to do. As a maximum I would hope not much more than three years, but that is the reality.”10