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# Value Based Procurement on target for June launch, but challenges remain
- URL: https://med-techinsights.com/value-based-procurement-on-target-for-june-launch-but-challenges-remain/
- Published: 2026-04-24T07:58:09.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T02:46:51.000Z
- Description: Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, looks ahead to the launch of value-based procurement and highlights challenges that remain. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is on target to launch its new val
- Author: Oliver Johnson
- Tags: Insights, Policy & Regulation

###### [*Chris Whitehouse*](https://med-techinsights.com/tag/chris-whitehouse/)*, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at* [*Whitehouse Communications*](http://www.whitehousecomms.com/?ref=med-techinsights.com)*, looks ahead to the launch of value-based procurement and highlights challenges that remain.*

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The [**Department of Health and Social Care**](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-health-and-social-care?ref=med-techinsights.com) (DHSC) is on target to launch its new value-based procurement (VBP) assessment methodology in June, with key officials lined up to give major presentations at key events that month.

Head of the [DHSC’s Medical Technology and Innovation Directorate](https://moderncivilservice.blog.gov.uk/2024/09/20/meet-the-modern-civil-service-david-lawson-medical-technology-and-innovation-director-at-the-department-of-health-and-social-care/?ref=med-techinsights.com), David Lawson, is scheduled to deliver presentations on the new methodology at the leading industry trade fair, [Med-Tech Expo](https://med-techexpo.com/newfront/plan-your-visit?utm%5Fsource=Google&utm%5Fmedium=PMAX&utm%5Fcampaign=Visprom26&gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=23578679645&gbraid=0AAAAAC-DPXvy16Bl4V%5F5O1eYe-HD1KrgM&gclid=CjwKCAjwhqfPBhBWEiwAZo196jizZdax6Lzv%5FEGakPjcmIDmz1uidQnijS0TKXGU8WaSwOPYXfZ0yBoClFoQAvD%5FBwE) in Birmingham on 4th June and at the pre-eminent health sector [event run by the NHS Confederation](https://www.nhsconfedexpo.org/?gad%5Fsource=1&gad%5Fcampaignid=23751112272&gbraid=0AAAAAC0bUi-FtO8KknDUhNFxs8ErsuwYn&gclid=CjwKCAjwhqfPBhBWEiwAZo196rdO41OOuH5Xi1QxxFF5ClPz-IFc1G8dDvZmuNRAUr6zSGX8nkSSNBoCfLMQAvD%5FBwE&ref=med-techinsights.com) on 10th June.

Workshops for industry, both online and in-person, are being held over the next week to help suppliers of medtech prepare for the new approach, and training modules are also being developed to be available for use by NHS procurement officials and industry. Work continues on the development of Compass, the digital platform that will eventually support the new approach, although the user version will not be available until well into 2027.

Government Ministers have repeatedly endorsed the adoption and roll-out of VBP in a series of recent answers to written parliamentary questions which also committed NHS Supply Chain to adopt the VBP approach across its procurements. But big challenges remain to be addressed if roll-out across the NHS in England is to be successful.

The first question will be whether industry has prepared the evidence that it will require to support its assertions that its products can improve patient outcomes and experiences, remove steps from the patient pathway and improve environmental impact; a challenge [that I have been highlighting](https://med-techinsights.com/2025/10/09/new-value-based-procurement-guidance-issued-for-medtech/) through this column for many months and years. Real world case studies, conducted in partnership with the NHS, are likely to be the basis of much supportive evidence provided by those whose products are assessed as high value by the new approach.

A second challenge is whether [NHS Supply Chain](https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/?ref=med-techinsights.com) will really engage with the principles of the new approach, or whether it will game the choice of questions that can be posed under the new methodology so as to ensure that all suppliers end up with the same or similar value score, leaving price as the dominant factor, so subverting the intentions of Ministers in committing to the new approach.

The successful adoption of VBP will also require clinician engagement at the outset of the procurement process to ensure that improvements in patient outcomes and experience lie at the heart of the assessment of value, and are not simply paid lip-service to.

And whilst hospital trusts may be used to assessing value when it comes to high cost, high impact capital equipment, will community providers to whom government is committed to shifting care from such hospitals, have the same understanding and incentives enthusiastically to engage with the new approach?

Senior NHS executives will also need to deliver a paradigm shift in attitudes on the part of procurement managers for whom, all to often, the call is “I want your cheapest product, at a reduced price, and we will limit the number of items that healthcare professionals can make available to patients”.

These challenges can all be overcome with the right support from the centre of the DHSC, [NHS England](https://www.england.nhs.uk/?ref=med-techinsights.com) and NHS Supply Chain. For officials who’ve spent years working on this project, June can’t come soon enough.

*The Author used AI in preparing this article. Comments upon or questions about this article can be addressed to* [*chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com*](mailto:chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com)*.*