PROCURE is an EU Funded project that brings together 26 partners from 13 EU countries, including public and private organisations (public buyers, central purchasing bodies, regional health agencies, alliance of private hospitals, vendors, etc.) and other supporting organisations involved in healthcare public procurement, to undertake an assessment of public procurement practices to ensure they are managed effectively and efficiently.

The PROCURE assessment will focus on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on procurement organisations and practices from the 13 participating EU Member Sites. By means of comparison with the procurement processes prior to the pandemic, PROCURE will determine what changed and identify new strategies, action plans and policies that have been incorporated into public procurement as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

PROCURE’s goal is to make current healthcare procurement practices more resilient and efficient across the European Union, and to ensure that public health and care procurement systems can respond to future emergency crises and pandemics.

PROCURE Partners came together in Madrid on 16th January 2024 for the project’s kick off meeting. Partners were welcomed by colleagues from SILO, Project Coordinator, and Diana Burghardt, European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA).

The meeting provided partners with the opportunity to discuss key strategies, shared insights, and outline the roadmap for the upcoming tasks and activities. Importantly, it also allowed partners to develop and strengthen relationships.

PROCURE’s objectives are:

Ø  Undertake a thorough assessment of healthcare public procurement practices in the EU to enable them to be managed more effectively & precisely.

Ø  Facilitate healthcare public procurement organisations and policy makers to gauge & track their state of readiness and identify opportunities for improvement in procurement processes in response to future emergencies and pandemics.

Ø  Identify lessons learnt from the health and care procurement responses to COVID-19 and outline new or improved national and regional strategies on public procurement.