Recommendation 8

NHS Trusts largely have the choice whether or not to purchase equipment and consumables through NHS Supply Chain. NHS Supply Chain must therefore gain trusts’ confidence in its services. It carries out a customer satisfaction survey to measure how satisfied customers are with its service. The survey shows that overall net customer satisfaction is in steady decline, from its peak of 67% in quarter two 2021–22 to 54% in quarter two 2023–24. NHS Supply Chain calculates overall net satisfaction by subtracting the percentage of customers who give a ‘low’ rating from the percentage who rate overall satisfaction as ‘high’.11 NHS Supply Chain has revised its overall net customer satisfaction target from 66% to 56% but is still failing to achieve this new lower target. We asked NHS Supply Chain why customer satisfaction is below target and declining. NHS Supply Chain recognised that there is a long list of things it needs do, which should improve services for its customers, and expects to see customer satisfaction start to improve. However, NHS Supply Chain explained that it does not expect to see significant improvement until it has completed the modernisation of its infrastructure and technology.12 Oversight of NHS Supply Chain