Prior to resigning his post, former health secretary Wes Streeting urged hospital chief executives to sign up to a national energy procurement scheme to cushion themselves from energy price shocks caused by the war in Iran, HSJ reports.
Wes Streeting told CEOs at the 46 trusts not yet signed up to the national programme that “by uniting our purchasing power, we are able to maximise economies of scale and negotiate considerably lower energy prices”.
The national energy procurement scheme enables the public sector “to smooth price fluctuations and minimise the impact of sudden market changes, such as those resulting from international events like the war in the Middle East”, Mr Streeting said.
His intervention came days before he told the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s annual conference the Iran war also meant NHS was not going to get additional resources from the Treasury.
“With the war in Iran and its consequences for the global economy, I’m afraid I can’t play the Oliver Twist of the Cabinet, pleading for more from the Treasury. Not because the chancellor is Scrooge – to invoke another Dickens character – but because there isn’t any,” he explained.
Mr Streeting’s 27 April letter, seen by HSJ, refers to a national procurement framework set up by the Crown Commercial Service (now the Government Commercial Agency) to secure electricity and gas supplies for multiple trusts over a 30-month period.
Date: 14 May