NHS Supply Chain has announced that its new regional distribution centre in Widnes, Cheshire is ‘now fully operational’ and will be used to support 115 NHS trusts.
The opening of this 400,000ft² Gorsey Point facility is set to provide ‘a more resilient and efficient supply of products and medical equipment to hospitals and other health care providers across the North West’.
The site is reportedly around three times larger than the facility it replaces, providing eight times as many pallet spaces – growing from 7,500 to 60,000.
NHS Supply Chain has said that the new facility ‘will support 360 jobs, with the majority relocating from the smaller previous warehouse in nearby Runcorn’. It will serve 3,500 delivery locations and 18,400 individual requisition points that deliver products and equipment needed to care for patients across the region.
Andrew New, NHS Supply Chain CEO, said: “NHS Supply Chainâs Gorsey Point facility is a major investment in the North West and a significant part of our long term national growth plans, future-proofing our logistics operation in this part of the country and allowing us to better meet the growing needs of NHS trusts in the region.
“The purpose-built facility gives us the capacity to store not only a greater level of stock overall but also a broader range of products used by the NHS, boosting the resilience of our supply chain. This is something NHS trusts really wanted.
“Our reason for being is to help the NHS to put patients first and in this case we are delivering on that by working to make sure clinicians can rely on our supply chain to provide the products and equipment they need to do their job in a reliable, clinically assured and cost efficient way.”
