Proceur Ltd in the news: Healthcare Europa

LONDON, UK, 16 September 2011 – Proceur Ltd, the European healthcare procurement network, was featured in an interview in the September issue of Healthcare Europa, a subscription-only new service for the European healthcare services industry:

Martin Whitbread, former Credit Suisse healthcare services analyst, has launched Proceur Ltd, a group purchasing organisation for the European healthcare industry. He says the aim is to help hospitals and other operators procure smarter. It's a big market - Whitbread claims that Europe's hospitals alone spend $170bn on drugs, medtech and other consumables.

 

Whitbread says there are significant price differences across Europe - 30% variations are not unusual and medical devices and consumables, the two areas he is focusing on, can often see much larger differences.  That partly reflects the lack of consolidation in the industry. "Over the last ten years, I have been constantly struck by how fragmented the healthcare services market is. This reflects the fact that private healthcare has only recently become 'organised', and it remains a cottage industry in many countries.  Meanwhile, the public sector is becoming more decentralised as politicians across Europe introduce patient choice and local accountability."

 

He says that prices often vary significantly over time: "During the year the price of a unit can vary up to 15% for some operators."

 

Whitbread says the basic idea is aggregated negotiation, but that there is a lot more to the business model. "We are not in the business of forcing operators to reconfigure their logistics - but we do think that by introducing an element of co-operation we can make procurement more efficient.  In the current climate of austerity and ongoing top-line pressures this will be relevant for some years yet."

 

He is insistent that this will not be done purely at the expense of suppliers: "We'd like to help suppliers grow penetration - with both existing customers and by introducing new ones.  It's not a one way street, " adding: "under austerity, pricing pressure is the 'new normal' for many healthcare suppliers.  We can help moderate their sales and marketing expense."

 

For more information about Healthcare Europa, see www.healthcareeuropa.com

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About Proceur Ltd

Proceur brings European healthcare buyers and suppliers closer together.  We help healthcare services organisations better manage their procurement expenditure by reducing complexity and cost, allowing savings to be reinvested in service expansion.  For suppliers, the European customer base remains highly fragmented – with over 50,000 healthcare locations across 27 countries.  Proceur rationalises market access costs through our proprietary buying network.  The company was founded in 2011 by Martin Whitbread, an expert in healthcare services with over a decade in the industry as an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.  For more information, visit www.proceur.com.

For further information please contact:

Proceur Ltd

Martin Whitbread, Chief Executive Officer      +44 20 72 22 22 90        This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.