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Your guide to winning NHS contracts in a year full of financial challenges and governance reforms.
As we step into 2024, NHS buyers continue to wrestle with the financial challenges that have shaped the healthcare landscape over recent years. With the upcoming introduction of the new Procurement Act and a potential general election, an added layer of structural complexity is emerging for suppliers.
Within this environment, suppliers must develop a data-backed methodology towards identifying opportunities and planning their sales approach. To help you effectively plan for the year ahead, we’ve analysed contract award dates to identify when the biggest opportunities will emerge for NHS suppliers.
This report is an excerpt from the NHS 2024 Guidebook, which you can download for free here.
Our research into contract award patterns across 2023 has revealed that the most active months for NHS contracts to be awarded to suppliers are between March and June, with a notable surge in March.
This pattern is closely tied to the NHS's financial year start date in April. The finalisation of the previous financial year's deals predominantly happens in March, while the refresh of budgets in April creates a period of heightened new contract activity for the following three months.
This insight is vital for planning your engagement strategy, particularly during the quieter months of January and February, where you should be busy planning for this March-June peak period.
To effectively identify opportunities for this busy period, focusing on expiring contracts can provide early signals for contract renewal or downstream opportunities.
Analysis of the 2024 contract expiries reveals that a significant number of NHS contracts are set to expire in March.
This period leading up to March serves as an ideal window for suppliers to engage with buyers and identify which contracts are likely to renew or generate downstream opportunities between March and June.
By leveraging historical procurement data, you can dive deeper into these awarded and expiring NHS contracts to easily identify which represent potential opportunities for your business. Once you've pinpointed the right contracts, suppliers should identify key decision-makers and engage over potential downstream opportunities.
To access the full NHS 2024 Guidebook and plan out your strategy for this year, download the report for free here.
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