Spotless awarded integrated health sector contract

Spotless awarded integrated health sector contract

Spotless has been awarded the first ever dual District Health Board (DHB) tender for integrated non-clinical and support services. The five year contract will commence on 1 August 2010, for five years with a five year right of renewal.

The centralAlliance contract, which brings together the MidCentral DHB and the Whanganui DHB for 21 non-clinical services, allows the DHB Clinicians to focus on patient care while Spotless will provide services covering facilities management, engineering (including biomedical engineering and asset management), food (including patient and retail food, meals on wheels, food and beverage vending), dietetic, cleaning, orderly, security, transport and fleet management.

Spotless will leverage over 30 years of healthcare experience to manage a complex portfolio of services, delivering operational gains and cost efficiencies for the combined DHBs. Spotless has been supplying services to Whanganui and MidCentral DHBs for over 10 years and 16 years respectively. This new contract means Spotless brings innovative technology, management systems and processes across all sites and services, including measurement and benchmarking to improve service performance.

The Minister of Health, Tony Ryall, advocates the collaboration undertaken by the DHBs following the creation of a Shared Service Establishment Board in 2009 to help reduce the cost of DHB back office functions and save $700 million.

“Money will be crucial to help us maintain and improve frontline services over the next few years. Extra money in health will be limited for several years as we deal with the consequences of the current financial situation.

"The members of the Shared Service Establishment Board will be focusing on stopping duplication and waste caused by DHBs reinventing the wheel 21 times. All savings will go back into frontline health services” said Mr Ryall[1].

The centralAlliance regional approach is the first of its kind in New Zealand. As other DHBs form similar regional approaches, the centralAlliance model will be a successful template for others to follow and learn from. This agreement also provides for other DHBs or Government agencies to join this venture as participants to the agreement.

Josef Farnik, Spotless Group Managing Director and CEO said “We are proud to have been awarded this significant contract and look forward to enhancing the provision of integrated non-clinical services across both DHBs”.

“The size and scale of this contract represents a significant endorsement of Spotless’ ability to integrate services across regions and reinforces our leadership in the innovation of non-clinical solutions for the healthcare sector,” said Mr Farnik.

ENDS

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