As an in house provider you become a soft target for hard nosed directorate managers, when it comes time to pay the bills you may find an "Oops we spent the maintenance budget on 2 more staff, because there was a clinical need. But never mind we're all in the NHS so I'm sure you can cope as it all comes out of the same budget in the end." Without the FULL support of the director of finance and a very good business manager you don't stand a chance and even then if the directorate has enough clout they just carry on regardless.
At the end of the day no-one working for the NHS is going to stand still and watch patients suffer because of broken kit, just because the bills havn't been paid.
Been there tried that, doesn't work

Nice debate. The bottom-line appears to be that This House gives the thumbs-down to the idea of the Zero-Budget Department. Pity that. How about the idea of the Contracted-Out Department, then?

Have,nt they just done it Geoff ? I hear DHL are to be responsible for all Purchasing Requirements. The bad news is they are restricting choice somewhat, there will no longer be 139 different types of Paper Staplers available. Shame about that Eh ?

Latest news is that Kwik-Fit are bidding for a biomed department in the South West of England.

Contracted out is slightly different and would probably work a lot better since the money would go with the contract and be legally enforcible, and although a department wouldn't necessarily have the economies of scale of a big company it also wouldn't have shareholders demanding a cut of the funds.

"The government’s radical supply side reforms are incentivising trusts to explore opportunities to outsource clinical services and have led to the launch of a new conference."
The Managed Services in the NHS conference is on 30th & 31st October and includes Ernie Thompson, Chairman, NHS Confederation Equipment Forum as a speaker.
Watch you backs. It might be a zero department rather than a zero budget one.
Robert

No such word as incentivising (not on this side of the Atlantic, at any rate)!

But, as I've said many times before, the kit will still need to be fixed (etc.) by somebody!

Our users are not being charged for any repair/ppm done on their machines regardless who damaged the unit. Result? More repairs because of carelessness!

Geoff,
Does the word indicate whoch side of the Atlantic our leads are looking towards?
Robert

So you also suffer a “no blame culture” where you are too, then, Yahya (... where are you, I wonder)?

Rojo, I thought our leaders had their heads stuck up some other place!