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Managing outstanding medicines orders: from reactive to proactive

Event 9 September 2026Location Online, via Webex, 13.00-14.00pm
Topics: EventsPast EventsProcurementSupply

Guidance for managing outstanding orders in NHS pharmacy procurement teams to improve medicines availability and reduce financial impact of supply disruptions.

Contents

  1. Date
  2. Location
  3. About the event
    1. Why it’s important
    2. What was covered
  5. Speakers
    1. Non-SPS speakers
    2. SPS Speakers
  7. Resources
    1. Presentation resources
  9. Contact us
  10. Update history

Date

9 September 2026

Location

Online, via Webex, 13.00-14.00pm

About the event

Managing outstanding medicines orders effectively is essential to maintaining medicines availability, supporting patient safety and improving contract compliance. However, approaches to managing outstanding orders vary considerably across NHS Trusts, resulting in inconsistent processes, increased workload, and missed opportunities to identify supply risks early.

This webinar introduced new NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) guidance developed from a national review of current NHS Trust practices. It explored practical approaches to standardising outstanding order management, making better use of existing pharmacy system functionality, and present a vision for future digital improvements.

This session was developed for:

  • Pharmacy procurement teams
  • Pharmacy aseptic stock control teams
  • Pharmacy operations managers/senior leads
  • Pharmacy digital teams

Why it’s important

Outstanding medicines orders are an unavoidable part of NHS medicines procurement. Without effective monitoring, delayed deliveries can quickly lead to stock-outs, increased operational workload, emergency purchasing and additional financial pressure. 

Implementing a structured and consistent approach enables pharmacy procurement teams to identify potential supply issues earlier, take timely action, improve medicines availability and support making off-contract claims.

What was covered

  • Exploring the relationship between ordering behaviours, inventory management and their impact on stock availability and off-contract decision making
  • Fundamental principles and good practice for managing outstanding orders based on current tools/reports available and examples of how these have been developed to create a robust process
  • A worked example of how the process is managed in a hospital pharmacy

Speakers

A range of speakers from SPS and other organisations helped run this event.

Non-SPS speakers

Luke Tyler

Pharmacy Operations Manager – Procurement, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

SPS Speakers

Learn more about our SPS speakers below.

Resources

Information presented in these resources was correct at time of recording. Current guidance should be followed.

The recording will be available within a few weeks.

Presentation resources

Slides from the presentation are now available below.

Contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Update history

  1. Amended to past tense and slides added
  1. Published