University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has been nominated as a finalist in a national awards scheme that recognises efficient and effective delivery of public services.

The Trust stands to win the Best Customer Engagement Award in the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2013/14.

The entry outlines a project which reconfigured the portering and logistics teams following their move into the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham.

The model provides a one-stop-shop for transferring materials from the stores to departments across the Trust. It also provides a seven-day service to ensure the new hospital’s demand for materials and pharmaceuticals is met.

This new way of working is so much more efficient because deliveries to and collections from each ward are co-ordinated to take place at specific times of day.

Previously wards would ask for different items throughout the day and porters would spend time going backwards and forwards to deliver them but now the process is more consistent, efficient and reliable.

The National GO Awards will be held on Thursday 25 April 2013 at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, in association with Procurex Live North.

Procurex Live is a series of regional events dedicated to supporting the delivery of public services by providing anyone buying for or supplying to the public sector.

For the past eleven years the National GO Awards have been the benchmark by which progress in this multibillion-pound sector has been measured.

Further details on the National GO Awards 2013/14 and the other organisations nominated as finalists in our category can be found on the National GO Awards website.