An Overview of the Department

We have a multi-disciplinary team of qualified procurement professionals with the skills and knowledge to meet the challenges of the current economic climate. Our Vision 'To deliver an informed integrated sustainable commercial procurement and supply chain management function to the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust, commercial and collaborative partner organisations, encompassing the development of safe, innovative healthcare solutions, modern supply chain technologies and lean commercial strategies. To drive down cost in a transparent and compliant manner' "Smarter procurement will help your Trust save money that can be reinvested in patient care" Andy O’Connor, Director of COCH Commercial Procurement Services

Andy O’Connor MCIPS - Director of Commercial Procurement Services

Andy has extensive knowledge of Procurement and Supply Chain disciplines gained through 27 years of working across the Public (13 years) and Private (14 years) sectors with 25 of those years within Healthcare purchasing environments. Andy’s main focus is on reviewing and reforming Purchasing and Supply Chain functions to optimise service delivery. This ensures that they are equipped and able to deliver maximum savings and efficiencies to their relevant organisations. READ MORE

Andy has been a practitioner across all areas of Procurement and Supply Chain which allows him to understand how procurement and Supplies functions and teams work and more importantly how they should be able to perform in the future. In addition to his own knowledge skills and experience, Andy has built a team of true professionals within their own specialist areas of Procurement and Supply Chain as part of the Countess of Chester Commercial Procurement Services.

It is with the assistance of this wider team of professionals that COCH Commercial Procurement Services can offer you a service not only built on their experiences to date but also and uniquely based on their on-going practical knowledge and learning as a practising procurement team within a busy acute hospital environment.

Commercial Procurement Manager

Ruth Jones MCIPS

Ruth is a qualified procurement professional with over 10 years experience working in public sector procurement within the healthcare sector. Ruth worked on national procurement framework agreements for NHS Supply Chain before joining the team at the Countess of Chester.

Commercial Procurement Specialist

Ian Bailiff MCIPS

Ian is a qualified procurement professional with extensive experience in undertaking large complex projects. Ian worked on national procurement frameworks for Royal Mail, NHS Supply Chain and NHS PASA before joining the team at the Countess of Chester. His special interests are contract law and the Public Procurement Directives.

Commercial Procurement Specialist

Jim Flood MCIPS

Jim has over 30 years of public sector procurement experience both within the NHS and the local government sector. Prior to joining the Countess of Chester, Jim was Deputy Head of procurement at the North East London Foundation Trust and has previously held senior procurement positions at a number of London councils.

Jim has extensive experience in setting up framework agreements, tendering for highly complex EU procurement projects and has also led on several large collaborative projects. He aims to provide creative and innovative solutions to meet business requirements.

Commercial Procurement Specialist

Marion Haddley MCIPS

Marion is a qualified procurement professional with experience working within a variety of procurement, commercial and project management roles within the defence and healthcare sectors. Marion has worked at all stages of the procurement lifecycle on both simple transactional purchases as well as complex major long term contracts, all within the strict rules, regulations and processes of nuclear defence and EU public procurement.

Commercial Procurement Specialist

Abigail Ballard MCIPS

Abigail is a procurement professional with several years of experience working in public procurement in the healthcare sector. Prior to joining the team at the Countess of Chester, Abigail worked for NHS Supply Chain on high value national framework agreements in a number of product areas.