Page 75 - BHTA 100 years

Code submitted and then approved, e-auctions issue, a move back to London...
Another milestone for the Association came in early 2004 as the new Code of Practice was submitted to the Of ce of Fair Trading (OFT), with BHTA in line to become the rst trade organisation in the healthcare industry to gain OFT approval. BHTA was gearing up for a big PR push for the Code, including national and regional press, radio and trade publications being targeted. Completing an important element of the Code, Lord Thomas of Gresford QC agreed to be the independent arbitrator.
As technology developed, it meant that companies were dealing with new ways of doing business and not all of them were nding favour.
e-auctions, being run by NHS PASA, were causing a number of BHTA members concern. They considered them unfair as they didn’t take into account the service element inherent with BHTA members’ products. BHTA put forward a view that member’s products could not be treated like a commodity such as ‘a tin of baked beans’ and a position paper was produced arguing that they were likely to threaten patient care and safety if price alone was the only purchasing consideration.
Chairman’s dinners had been held for a couple of years and it was due to his attendance at one of them that Health Minister, Lord Hunt, invited BHTA to be part of the Healthcare Industries Task Force (HITF) which examined how government could help industry to be more successful and directly in uence future policy.
The Association contributed to a report by HITF that gave what was described as ‘a resounding endorsement of the role of our sector’. HITF recommendations
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