Longer-term actions

Europe-wide actions

Develop a single unified Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (possibly with ISO accreditation) that helps to simply the procurement process for SMEs when they compete for public sector contracts.

Establish a system within the regions to open up access by SMEs to tenders under the EU directive.

Explore opportunities to maximise competition by dividing large procurement exercises (e.g. information technology), into a portfolio of medium and smaller size contracts with successful delivery ensured by effective project management capabilities within procurement organisations.

Contracts and service level agreements for health care providers should include the revised definition of 'Value for money'.

There is a need for local businesses to be provided with the ability to compete for public sector contracts on a fair and open basis. Changing the terms of small business loan guarantee schemes could be one way of achieving this.

Allocate structural funds to support capacity building in new member states.

Regional and local level actions

Explore potential for collaborative working, clusters and consortia among SMEs with complimentary products and those with similar products. Specifically,

• to coordinate policies around a common strategy to improve the efficiency of regional health systems
• to create an effective and rapid information & communication system among all the key actors in regional health systems (competitive intelligence to develop research, investment and development)

Encourage new building design solution combined with flexible models of capital investment procurement that conform to the revised definition of 'Value for money'. For example, the Groningen Health Campus in the Netherlands or the Joint Ventures approach in Scotland.

Include performance metrics that operationalise the revised definition of 'Value for money' in the monitoring and evaluation of health care provider contracts.