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Frequently Asked Questions 1- What is the National Unified Procurement Company for Medical Supplies? 1- What is the National Unified Procurement Company for Medical Supplies? National Unified Procurement Company for Medical Supply is a national company that was established under the Royal Decree No. M/71 on 28/8/2007 with a capital of 1.5 billion Riyals, and it is fully owned by the Public Investment Fund, responsible for the centralizing procurement, warehousing, distribution, and re-exporting of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and supplies for the benefit of all public hospitals and healthcare facilities.
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2- What is the company’s Vision and Mission? Our vision is: “To be the trusted, state of the art, healthcare supply chain management company to meet our customers’ expectations and together set new standards for healthcare services in Saudi Arabia”. Our Mission is: “To provide the highest quality, transparent and abundant healthcare supply chain management to our customers by using the most effective and most efficient operations to meet our government and stakeholders’ expectations”.
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3- What is the company strategy? The company developed its overall strategy for the next ten years up to 2019, with a continuous involvement of our customers, our suppliers and the related entities in the healthcare sector. The strategic plan has been divided into three stages with a specific timeframe (The phase of Building the company, Operation phase and Expansion phase) taken in consideration the readiness and the capability of the healthcare entities, Suppliers and the company at each phase, to provide a better level of health services and help improve productivity and organizational efficiency of government agencies while mitigate any potential risks in such projects of this magnitude.
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4- What is the company Objectives? · To provide pharmaceuticals, medical equipments and supplies for governmental hospitals and healthcare facilities in the most effective and efficient manner. · To achieve the needed flexibility for the company to obtain its products from all available sources both locally and internationally. · To secure the lowest prices and best value for our clients through the use of a strategic purchases in large quantities at competitive prices. · To achieve efficient inventory control management, according to health facilities actual needs to achieve economic benefits and to minimize stock wastage. · To provide a stat of the art warehouse facilities. · To maintain a strategic stocks level of pharmaceuticals, and medical equipments and supplies. · To develop an advanced and automated system to link the company with all partners, customers and suppliers.
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5- What are the services NUPCO will provide? · Managing the procurement of pharmaceuticals, medical equipments and supplies for our customers. · Managing storage and inventory control between the healthcare organizations to optimize the use of products. · Managing the process of transforming products among parties using the best and most modern means of transportation. · Deploying the latest solutions of modern technology to facilitate the process of procurement, warehouse and transportation and to integrate such technology with our clients, our partners and suppliers.
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6- Who are the company’s clients? NUPCO will provide services to its clients from governmental healthcare sectors in Saudi Arabia as follows: · Ministry of Health · Ministry of Defense and Aviation – Medical Services Department · Ministry of Interior – Medical Services Department · National Guard – Health Affairs · King Faisal Specialized Hospital and Research Center · Ministry of Higher Education – University Hospitals and Healthcare Centers.
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7- What role NUPCO will play to improve the services of healthcare entities? By collaborating with all health entities and suppliers, NUPCO is looking to do a quantum leap in healthcare supply chain management in the kingdom through implementing the best practices and deploying the latest solutions of modern technology to manage and facilitate the process of procuring, storing and transporting of pharmaceuticals, medical equipments and supplies with highest standard of quality to meet our customers’ needs in the most efficient and effective manner in addition to applying inventory control management to ensure of having strategic stock level and minimize the wastage which alternatively enable the healthcare sectors to focus on their core function.
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NUPCO will adhere to the policies set by the Council of Health Services and the standards of the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority with regards of providing pharmaceuticals, equipments and medical supplies.
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NUPCO considers the Executive Office of GCC Health Ministers Council as one of the available procurement sources for the company through the tenders it will offer through the unified procurement program of pharmaceuticals.
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10- When will NUPCO start its operational phase? The company prepared its strategic plan for the next ten years, and it almost completed the first phase which is establishing and building up. NUPCO will start its operational phase gradually according to the readiness and ability of healthcare entities, the suppliers and the company.
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11- What will happen to the operations of procurement in the healthcare sectors? The operations of procurement will be centralized through the unified procurement program executed by NUPCO to provide all the needs of the public healthcare sectors of the approved items listed in the standard catalogues in the most effective and efficient manner. NUPCO will have the flexibility to obtain the medical products from all available sources, secure competitive prices and best value for its clients and reduce the cost through the use of a strategic purchase in large quantities, manage and control the inventory efficiently according to the actual needs of the healthcare facilities to achieve economic benefits and to minimize stock wastage. In addition, NUPCO will ensure supplying the needs of healthcare sectors throughout the year.
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12- Will the public hospitals be able to buy directly from the suppliers? Through the unified catalogues of Pharmaceuticals, Equipments and medical Suppliers NUPCO aims to provide all the governmental healthcare facilities with their needs. However, they can obtain their needs for the items that are not listed in the catalogues directly from the suppliers without referring to NUPCO. Also, if NUPCO is not being able to provide any of the items listed in its unified catalogues, the healthcare facilities can obtain their needs directly from the suppliers and at the expense of NUPCO. In addition, in emergency cases, the governmental healthcare facilities can get their needs directly from all available sources locally and internationally as long as not exceed 10 % of the budget allocated to them.
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13- Will NUPCO procure from the local suppliers or from the international manufacturers? NUPCO is very keen to collaborate with local suppliers to provide the public healthcare entities with their needs in accordance to the policies that will be applied in procurement process taking into consideration the efficiency and the highest quality. NUPCO may deal with the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, equipments and medical supplies or their dealers, local manufacturers, the suppliers or foreign companies as available sources for the company.
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14- Will NUPCO provides services for the private sector? The company was established to serve the governmental healthcare facilities in the kingdom, and this is what the company will focus on in the coming years.
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15- How will NUPCO accommodate different healthcare sectors? The standard catalogues will be the main references in regard to procurement to provide the needs of the different governmental healthcare sectors through NUPCO. These catalogues have been prepared by specialized committees includes number of experts and with participation of representatives from major governmental health sectors, where the committees worked according to high quality terms and specifications within the framework and policies set by the Council of Health Services and the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority. In terms of the technical matters, the relationship between NUPCO and the health sectors will be contractual relationship where it is managed by the Council of health Services manage.
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16- How will the orders be received from the health sectors? NUPCO plans to develop an advanced and integrated automated system that includes central and operational information resources. This system will then be connected to a computer network that will link all healthcare facilities in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This will definitely enhance the communications and information exchange and facilitate the process of order and demand management.
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17- What about the new and unregistered items? NUPCO will coordinate in this regard with the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority to find a mechanism to deal with both the new and unregistered items in addition to classify the permitted and prohibited items according to the standards set by the SFDA to avoid making the kingdom of Saudi Arabia an open market for the manufacturers’ experiments, which could cause harm to the patient and increase the maintenance cost of medical equipments.
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18- How will NUPCO issue the procurement tenders? NUPCO will set a transparent mechanism to issue its procurement tenders to the qualified and registered suppliers in NUPCO through appropriate channels.
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19- How can the suppliers register in the company qualified list of suppliers? First of all, all suppliers must be registered and licensed by SFDA. Secondly, NUPCO has a list of health care suppliers obtained previously by searching and through meetings with suppliers in addition to the information received from NUPCO’s clients from the health sectors. Those suppliers will be invited to complete the registration and qualifying process. In addition, the company welcomes receiving more of specialized suppliers to register in the suppliers list through the company website (www.nupco.com).
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20- What is the mechanism for selection of supplier? The suppliers will be selected in accordance to the standard practices in this matter that reflects the quality of the services and the products.
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21- Will the bid be awarded to one company? And what is the impact of this on the other companies? In this regard, NUPCO will launch its tenders to provide the needs of different health care sectors according to the standards catalogues that NUPCO will provide. These catalogues are approved by the relevant healthcare entities. Through the mechanism of suppliers’ selection, NUPCO is keen on focusing on the needed items by the client, the suppliers who provide these items in addition to other standard of selecting the supplier like the prices, time of delivery and the quality of the services, to ensure the transparency and equality in dealing with all suppliers.
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The suppliers will get added advantages by dealing with NUPCO such as saving their time and effort where they deal with one entity and the administrative process is more flexible.
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23- Will NUPCO be responsible for the payment of the suppliers? As the nature of contracts, NUPCO will be responsible for the contracts with the suppliers as well as the payment.
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The suppliers can follow their payment invoices with the Finance Department in the company, where the collection process will be done through a bank transfer to the supplier account and during a period of time agreed upon by both parties. NUPCO is striving to develop a suitable and advanced automated mechanism that enables the suppliers to submit the required documents and follow up their due payment electronically.
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25- Is there a specific profit margin set by NUPCO? NUPCO will negotiate this subject with the Council of Health Services to determine a certain percentage to be added to the actual purchase prices obtained by NUPCO and to be fixed for a period of time agreed upon and reviewed and updated in a regular basis.
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26- Will NUPCO deal with the national medical industries? NUPCO is keen to cooperate with the local suppliers and the national medical manufacturers, as NUPCO is complementary to the private sector activities rather than compete with them.
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With respect to medical equipments contracts, NUPCO will ensure that terms and conditions of contracts include the maintenance and warranty for the medical equipments according to what is agreed upon the warranty period and the mechanism of the maintenance.
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28- Will NUPCO re-export the pharmaceuticals, Equipments and Medical Supplies? In addition to the services NUPCO provides in regards of procuring storing and distributing the pharmaceuticals, Equipments and medical supplies, NUPCO also will re-export and transport them.
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29- Does NUPCO have its own warehouses? And how many? And where are they located? The company developed its plan for constructing its main hubs and smaller satellite warehouses strategically located in different regions throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to serve the healthcare sectors and to meet their needs properly. Previously, NUPCO invited a number of local and international companies specializing in logistics solutions to submit their proposal to explore establishing strategic partnership through the participation in building and operating state of the art warehouses network with the highest international standards.
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30- What about the existing warehouses of both governmental healthcare sectors and the private? These warehouses will be subject to technical evaluation to decide which of those could be used by the company for storing purposes.
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31- What is the role of logistics departments’ staff in the healthcare sectors? They have a prominent role in coordinating with NUPCO to obtain their respective organizations’ needed services provided by NUPCO. In addition, they will also continue with their normal practice to obtain the healthcare sectors needs of the items that are not listed in the standards catalogues directly from the suppliers.
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The company warehouses will be built according to the highest international standards to meet the purpose of storing different classes of pharmaceuticals, equipment and medical supplies in an environment that suits the nature of these items. Moreover, the stored stocks will be based on the annual needs of the clients and taking into account the specific needs during the religious occasions and different climate seasons.
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33- How will NUPCO manage its warehouses? NUPCO will manage its warehouses by deploying the latest technology in the field of storing and distributing with the highest international standards in addition to cooperating with specialized companies with long experience of operating medical warehouses to facilitate the process of warehouse management.
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The company is developing an advanced and integrated automated system to be connected to a computer network that will link healthcare facilities to facilitate the process of ordering and demand management and inventory look up between the company and its customers and suppliers.
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35- Is there a specific mechanism for the distribution? Yes, through the database that has been collected to identify the locations of all the clients by using (GIS) system as well as analyzing data of the digital and paper maps data, the distribution network drop points will be identified accurately and therefore special distribution database will be created.
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36- Will NUPCO become a local dealer for foreign manufacturers and suppliers? The objective of NUPCO is to provide the governmental healthcare sectors with their needs through all available sources. However, NUPCO has no plan to work in the medical manufacturing business or to be a dealer for foreign manufacturers and suppliers.
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