29 May 2024
The Law School’s Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells has been appointed to the National Health Service England’s Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel, set up to ensure that procurement processes for healthcare services are transparent, fair and proportionate.
The Panel will oversee complaints about the NHS Provider Selection Regime, a new set of rules for procuring health care services in England which came into force on 1 January 2024, as well as complaints about the accreditation of additional providers to facilitate patient choice and support greater control over where they receive their healthcare.
Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells, a member of the Centre for Health, Law, and Society and Co-Director of the Centre for Global Law and Innovation at the University of Bristol Law School, is the only academic member of the new Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel.
Professor Sanchez-Graells said: "I am grateful to have the opportunity to contribute my expertise to the Independent Panel, and to support and shape the rollout of new rules on provider selection seeking to strike a good balance between facilitating patient choice, fostering collaboration within the NHS, and ensuring high standards of procurement in the award of contracts for healthcare services."
The Provider Selection Regime (PSR) has been designed to:
- introduce a flexible and proportionate process for deciding who should provide health care services;
- provide a framework that allows collaboration to flourish across systems;
- and ensure that all decisions are made in the best interest of patients and service users.
The Panel will oversee processes for the two elements of the panel’s responsibilities, reviewing representations in relation to the PSR, and reviewing patient choice complaints.
Find out more about the Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel and the PSR on the NHS website.
Further information
Professor Albert Sanchez-Graells is Co-Director of the Centre for Global Law and Innovation and a Professor of Economic Law at the University of Bristol Law School. He is currently a member of the UK Cabinet Office’s Open Contracting Advisory Group, as well as a former Member of the European Commission Stakeholder Expert Group on Public Procurement
Albert specialises in EU economic law and, in particular, competition law, public procurement and digital regulation. His most recent monograph was supported by the British Academy through a prestigious Mid-Career Fellowship in 2022/23. Albert's working papers are available at SSRN and his analysis of current legal developments is published in his blog.
The Centre for Health, Law, and Society (CHLS) promotes cross-disciplinary and cross-sector perspectives on the impacts of law and governance on physical, mental and social wellbeing. Based within the University of Bristol Law School, the CHLS comprises leading scholars whose work focuses on wide-ranging practical areas from within and far beyond health care systems, including clinical medicine, reproductive care, mental health, social care, and public and global health.
The Centre for Global Law and Innovation (CGLI) brings together scholars with an interest in drivers of innovation and global regulatory trends in law. Taking a broad and inclusive approach to innovation, the work of its members focuses on areas such as trade, procurement, investment, finance, intellectual property, information technology, regulation and health law.
