Blog

Practitioner notes on hospital procurement, supply chain and healthcare business

Short, specific and used in live operations first. New articles every week; the fortnightly digest goes out as The Evidence Brief on LinkedIn.

Procurement

How to build a hospital spend cube in an afternoon

Most hospital groups cannot answer "what did we spend on ceftriaxone last year?" Here is the afternoon that fixes it.

28 Oct 2026 · 7 min
Tendering

Why the lowest landed-cost supplier is often the most expensive one

Award on landed cost alone and you pay later in stock-outs, expiries and clinician workarounds. Here is the five-line scoring we use.

28 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Pharmacy

Formulary rationalisation: the quiet 20–40% in class-level tender lots

Four proton-pump inhibitors on the formulary means four tender lines, four stock lines and four prices. One class-level lot usually saves 20–40%.

28 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Data

Vendor and item master cleansing: the first 30 days

Every supply chain project starts with the same discovery: the item master has 40% duplicates and the vendor master has one supplier spelled five ways. Fix it first.

28 Oct 2026 · 5 min
Supply chain

Consignment and implant tracking in the OT and cath lab: stop paying for what you did not use

Implants and cath-lab consumables on consignment are convenient — until the reconciliation shows you were billed for items that were never implanted.

28 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Setup & regulatory

Setting up a hospital or clinic in the UAE: the licensing roadmap (DoH, DHA, MOHAP)

Three regulators, one country. Here is the sequence investors and operators actually follow — and where projects lose six months.

28 Oct 2026 · 8 min
Procurement

Savings that reach the P&L: how to validate procurement savings with Finance

Procurement reports 12% saved; the CFO sees costs up 4%. Both are right. Here is how to make them agree.

28 Oct 2026 · 5 min
Suppliers

What GCC hospital buyers need from suppliers before they will shortlist you

Good product, good price, no shortlist. Usually it is the registration, the catalogue data or the quotation format. Fix those and the door opens.

28 Oct 2026 · 6 min
India

International-standard operations, Indian-standard overheads: a 12-month plan for hospital owners

Most hospital turnarounds in India start with the wrong thing. Start with the supply chain; it pays for everything that follows.

28 Oct 2026 · 6 min
Careers

How to start a career in healthcare supply chain and procurement (India and the Gulf)

Healthcare supply chain is one of the few functions hiring in every hospital group in India and the Gulf. Here is how to get in.

28 Oct 2026 · 5 min
Regulatory

UAE Tatmeen serialisation: what hospitals, pharmacies and suppliers must do

Every pharma pack in the UAE now carries a serialised GS1 DataMatrix and must be reported at each hand-over. Here is what changes on the ground.

28 Oct 2026 · 5 min
Supply chain

The eight hospital inventory KPIs that matter (and the ones that do not)

Most hospital dashboards track twenty inventory numbers and act on none. These eight are the ones that change decisions.

28 Oct 2026 · 5 min
Want a topic covered?Tell us the problem you are solving; the most requested topics are written first.
Suggest a topic