Procurement platform for primary care awaits access to HSC

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

A collaborative procurement platform designed for primary and community healthcare providers was piloted in Auckland and is technically ready for nationwide deployment, but needs access to the Health System Catalogue.

Primely is a business-to-business marketplace that would allow primary care providers to access the same national pricing available to hospitals for medical supplies and equipment.

Jess Morgan-French, chief executive of Collaborative Aotearoa, presented the project alongside Rod Hall from Tranzsoft at Digital Health Week NZ 2025, highlighting significant cost disparities between primary and secondary care procurement. 

She said there is a fundamental pricing disparity where primary and community care providers pay between 10 to 40 percent more for identical medical supplies compared to hospitals.

Morgan-French said it was ironic that community and primary healthcare providers receive less funding than hospital systems yet pay more for essential supplies.

The Primely platform is similar to consumer e-commerce sites, allowing healthcare providers to browse multiple suppliers to choose their items.

"What is missing is we do not have access to the Te Whatu Ora Health System Catalogue (HSC) despite a lot of advocacy from a lot of different people," she said.

Hall, who has led much of the technical development, said the platform was co-designed with primary care.

It consolidates procurement from multiple suppliers into one streamlined process and is designed to extend national pricing and supply access to all healthcare providers, including remote clinics, iwi health providers and urgent care centres.

However, following a successful pilot in Auckland a copule of years ago, wider deployment depends on gaining access to the national HSC, which contains standardised product data covering more than 270,000 active clinical and non-clinical products.

Treasury-approved business case documents from the original HSC project talk about providing access beyond hospitals, including Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), non-government organisations (NGOs), community services and other healthcare providers.

The business case stated that PHOs, NGOs and community services "would be consumers of the HSC, long-term".

However, national director - procurement, supply chain and health technology management Andy Windsor, says establishing the HSC to meet the needs of Health NZ is the current priority and no decisions have been made regarding extending it beyond that.

Morgan-French said the platform addresses several current health policy objectives, including supporting distributed and community-based care, providing equity across providers and communities, and enabling primary care-led system efficiency.

Image: Jess Morgan-French, chief executive of Collaborative Aotearoa

You’ve read this article for free, but good journalism takes time and resource to produce. Please consider supporting eHealthNews by becoming a member of HiNZ, for just $17 a month.

Read more National Systems & Strategy news

Return to eHealthNews.nz home page