Peace Hospice

The Peace Hospice, based in Watford, cares for people living with a life limiting or terminal illness and supports their families from across South West Hertfordshire.

Questions answered by Gary Nicholls, Support Services Manager at Peace Hospicce.

What IHP agreements are you currently using?

We are currently trading on the Stationery, Waste and Clinical Waste Management agreements.

Why did you join IHP?

Ultimately we decided to become a Member of IHP to save money. We began discussions with an IHP Account Manager at a Healthcare Conference, who illustrated the potential cost savings IHP could offer us.

We also liked the amount of time we would save with IHP working like our own contract management team, choosing only the best possible suppliers to become approved IHP suppliers on our behalf.

What benefits has IHP generated for your organisation?

We have a great relationship with IHP and trust the pricing and quality of service their approved suppliers provide. We have received impressive savings on our purchasing costs and with IHP's expert contract management, more of our time can be better spent on our core workload, so we can work more effectively in supporting hospice care.

How has IHP helped your organisation maximise the savings available to you?

This year alone the hospice has to raise £3 million of charitable funds so we can run and develop our services. After going to such long and difficult methods of raising this money it's great to be able to show our trustees, patients and the wider public, that by trading through IHP we are making the best of the money awarded to us.

Tell us about a recent project that IHP has helped you with.

Before IHP we were trading with three different suppliers for all of our waste disposal, which would take up a lot of our time in terms of contract management, it increased the level of paper work we had to complete and was over complicating the whole process.

With IHP we have simplified the majority of our waste streams into one contract with Office Depot Environmental Solutions who supply us with clinical, pharmaceutical, confidential and florescent tubes waste disposal.

Now with just one point of contact at IHP we have alleviated the task of managing three different suppliers ourselves as well as making precious cost savings.

Are you thinking of trading on any other IHP agreements in the near future?

We will in the next few weeks begin trading on IHP's Workwear agreement through approved supplier Arco, and possible Alexandra.

We may also be exploring the opportunities of trading through IHP after the being awarded the Department of Health's Capital Grant. .

How has the new Central Billing system helped to streamline your purchasing?

Central Billing allows us to make one single payment each month, rather than a number of different payments to various suppliers, saving us time on administration tasks.

How will your residents/patients benefit from the savings you make?

Given the current financial climate cost saving is an inevitable exercise for care organisations. The savings we have made through IHP have all contributed to our bottom line, so have helped to minimise the cutting back of our services. IHP has helped us to achieve continuation of our high standard care for our patients, which in this current environment is our main priority.

What would you say to other healthcare providers that are considering becoming a member of IHP?

Yes, definitely give it a try and speaking on behalf of Peace Hospice, it has been a very positive thing for us as individuals and an organisation. I would sincerely recommend giving it a try.