The Department of Health for England and Wales has named Lord Carter as a ‘procurement champion’ for the NHS.
According to the Health Service Journal (HSJ), Labour peer Lord Carter is to be tasked with helping the NHS save up to £2bn from its budget for goods and services by 2016.
These non-payroll costs, which include spending on medicines, currently amount to about £20bn per year. The Government already has plans in place to reduce treatment costs, including a price freeze on expenditure in England for 2014 and 2015, and a subsequent increase over the next three years at a lower rate than previously forecast.
Lord Carter has experience in both the public and private sectors of the UK healthcare environment, have served as chair of the NHS Co-operation and Competition Panel (CCP) and as UK head of US-owned healthcare firm McKesson. This broad experience is likely to have been one of the reasons the DH was keen to appoint Lord Carter to his new position.
In addition to his healthcare interests, Lord Carter has chaired a number of government reviews concerning such subjects as the Commonwealth Games 2002, the new Wembley Stadium, National Athletics, the procurement of legal aid and pathology.