What did we do?

We explored wound care procurement and purchasing practices in community and primary care services across four partnering NHS community provider organisations and neighbouring clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to answer the following research question:

What factors influence the wound care procurement decisions of community NHS services and CCGs in Greater Manchester?

Why was it important?

In the UK an estimated 200,000 patients have a complex wound which represents a significant burden to patients and the NHS. Wound care management is responsible for approximately 4% of annual UK healthcare budget. We collected dispensing data for Greater Manchester in relation to wound care products from ePACT (an application which allows users at primary care organisations and NHS Trusts to electronically access prescription data) and found marked variation in expenditure and the types of products used. This is not unsurprising given that there is currently a paucity of evidence relating to product efficacy and no national standards to guide product choice, leading to multiplicity of product use across the UK.

This project has helped us gain insight and understanding into the factors that influence prescribing choices for wound care in community and primary care services in Greater Manchester. Together with information collected through the other activities of our wound care programme, the findings of this work have helped support future service development, product procurement initiatives, and research and implementation activities in this area.

How did we do it?
We conducted focus groups with healthcare professionals (tissue viability and other community specialist nurses, specialist and generalist podiatrists, district nurses and primary care nurses) working in wound care to help explain and understand current prescribing and product ordering practices in community and primary care services in Greater Manchester.

Who we are working with?

Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust

In addition to the above organisations, who are formal partners in our wound care programme, individuals from the following organisations were also invited to participate in this work: NHS Bury CCG, NHS Central Manchester CCG, NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale CCG, NHS Oldham CCG, NHS South Manchester CCG, NHS Trafford CCG, the North West Commissioning Support Unit and NHS Shared Business Services.

More information
For more information please contact Alison Littlewood (Programme Manager) or Professor Dame Nicky Cullum (Academic Lead).