Impact on patients of NHS practices in absorbent continence product purchasing

That this House notes that the current approach by the NHS to the purchasing of absorbent continence products adversely impacts upon patients' safety, quality of life and health outcomes, including avoidable hospital admissions, urinary tract infections, skin conditions, pressure ulcers and overall health and wellbeing; considers that the current focus on unit price, rather than value and assessment of the most clinically appropriate product for a patient, leads to avoidable increases in the number of items used, the cost of laundering clothes and bedding, staff time and avoidable harm to staff and patients, and so to substantial overall increases in the financial cost to the system; and encourages His Majesty's Government to deliver on its commitment to reducing unwarranted variation of care and delivering value based procurement and urgently to review the priorities of and incentives for purchasing managers to ensure that patients access the most clinically appropriate product for them, so improving patient outcomes and quality of life, whilst also reducing avoidable cost to the system.