Impact of integration on procurement of urgent goods and serviceswithin the public healthcare sector

Abstract

Urgent procurement in healthcare has been under-researched despite its critical role in ensuring business continuity and timely patient care. This study explores how procurement integration impacts urgent procurement by combining a systematic literature review with secondary data analysis from the UK government’s Model Hospital database. The findings indicate that while procurement integration is well understood in planned contexts, it remains insufficiently addressed in urgent situations, particularly unpredictable, patient- specific requirements. Two key contributions emerge from this research: first, it differentiates between standard and urgent procurement processes, emphasising the latter's unique challenges in healthcare. Second, it highlights the limited integration of urgency within procurement strategies, with procurement often overriding clinical input. A theoretical framework is proposed to bridge this gap, drawing on case studies of eight healthcare providers (five public and three private) and interviews with 30 professionals, including clinicians and procurement managers. The results show that effective communication integration is essential for improving urgent procurement outcomes, enabling faster response times and fostering stakeholder collaboration. The study underscores that previous procurement successes enhance future urgent procurement performance, while failures reduce responsiveness. Additionally, conflicting objectives between clinical and procurement teams and a lack of tailored decision support systems (DSS) hinder urgent procurement efficiency. This PhD thesis calls for developing a DSS designed to streamline urgent procurement processes by improving communication, transparency, and alignment of objectives. Integrating contingency and socio-technical systems frameworks with qualitative data offers a robust foundation for future research and practical solutions to optimise healthcare procurement, particularly in the UK public healthcare sector.