Over the past 18 months, NHS Supply Chain has been designing and building a new online catalogue, in collaboration with five pilot NHS trusts.

Some of the benefits that users are seeing from the new catalogue pilot include faster and more efficient searches and product images in the basket, making it easier to review orders.

In addition, the new catalogue includes trust-specific pricing, including and excluding VAT, for accurate price comparisons with external suppliers. Users will also experience persistent basket contents, even after session timeouts, and a mobile-responsive site, allowing users to browse and order on the go.

“Visually the new catalogue is a lot easier when you do a search, thanks to the larger images,” commented Adel McMahon, Buyer at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

Madeline Redman, Surgical Category Procurement Lead for Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, added: “I prefer the new catalogue, it’s definitely faster.”

NHS Supply Chain (NHSSC) says the trusts’ feedback has helped it develop and release new features in phases through real-world insights into how the catalogue is used for searching, browsing, and ordering products.

According to NHSSC, over 1.5 million searches are performed every month on its existing catalogue. Several of the pilot trusts are choosing to add more users so they can benefit from the improved search function.

Since January this year, NHSSC expanded access to the new catalogue’s search and browse functionality to more trusts to gain further feedback, with over 30 now having access.

Emma Lowry, Head of Customer Digital Experience at NHS Supply Chain, commented: “We’ve now built a foundational product, that delivers the core operational functionality for placing and tracking orders, and are ready to open up access to the new catalogue to all customers. We’ll do this through a phased approach starting from November 2025.

“We’re already receiving great feedback about the new catalogue, but we’ll continue to develop it in collaboration with users to ensure it provides the best possible user experience.”

On both desktop and mobile, the new catalogue will enable users to log in via integrated single sign on; browse products using eClass navigation; use the search engine to search for products by NPC, MPC, supplier, brand, GTIN, or free text; view product pages and product lists; add products to shopping basket; place orders; view order history; see and set financial approval levels; view and manage user roles and permissions; and use guided buying features (tailored catalogue/shareable lists).

The version of the new catalogue that customers will have access to at activation will not be the final product, NHSSC highlights. It will continue to build on these features and enhance the catalogue further.

NHS Supply Chain says that opening access to everyone allows it to gain valuable data and insight from user journeys and to understand the platform’s performance as it builds up traffic. This will enable help NHSSC prioritise future developments.

The existing catalogue will still be available for users to access after they have been activated on the new one.

NHSSC says it will begin to open access to the new catalogue to all customers from November 2025. This will be segmented into four tranches. The rollout is expected to be fully completed in around one year.

NHS trusts that are interested in joining the initial phase of activation and gaining early access to the new catalogue should email the Digital Commerce team and copy in their NHS Supply Chain ICS Manager.

Details of the activation plan will be shared in the coming months with trusts, according to NHSSC.

Further information about the new catalogue can be found here.

Earlier this year, the British Healthcare Trades Association submitted a Freedom of Information request to Supply Chain Coordination Limited (SSCL), the organisation responsible for managing NHS Supply Chain operations.

The FOI request sought clarity on how many price increase requests are submitted by suppliers to NHS Supply Chain, what the outcomes typically are, how long decisions take, and the overall process for handling such requests.