As Australia’s population ages and many operators across healthcare grapple with labour shortages, an investment in healthcare infrastructure is more critical than ever. The focus is no longer simply on funding more beds or expanding emergency departments – it is about building smart, future-proof facilities that can withstand growing demand for care and keep people safe.

Several new federal and state projects are underway to modernise and expand the capacity of facilities across Australia’s healthcare network, but how is the safety of those working to build these facilities affected by the sudden growth of the sector? And how can procurement and HSEQ professionals manage the influx of new vendors to meet their WHS standards, ESG expectations, and internal polices?

The future landscape of the healthcare sector

From both a state and federal level, there’s been a major injection of funds to support the future healthcare system in Australia.

Some of the major investments in health infrastructure include:

Increased financial support will see dozens more major projects initiated across Australia to increase the capacity and efficiencies of current healthcare facilities – an essential step towards smarter, more capable hospitals and aged care facilities.

Increased pressures for procurement

The current and projected landscape of the healthcare sector requires more of the procurement managers tasked to resource them. Considerations must be made across environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance, ethical sourcing, and adherence to workplace health and safety requirements when selecting suppliers and contractors for major projects. Importantly, organisations must introduce further operational measures to assess and verify a contractor’s experience before they come to site to reduce the risk of non-compliance and injury throughout a project’s lifecycle.

One of the key challenges facing procurement managers across the sector is ensuring contractors, often engaged at short notice to meet the project demands, are adequately vetted and assessed before working on site. With thousands of suppliers and contractors involving in any one redevelopment, the resources required to assess vendors against the unique requirements of the stakeholders involved are increasing.

Why compliance is critical for major projects

There’s a close relationship between increased government spending and workplace injury and illness. This has been seen this before following the $2.7B Home Insulation program in 2009. The program subsequently enabled a large number of inexperienced workers to work on installing insulation in Australian homes, often engaged by employers or contractors who were undertaking dangerous work without adequate qualifications.

Both the recent federal and Victorian state investment in healthcare infrastructure increases the opportunities available for contractors looking to work on long-term projects in the sector. For the organisations responsible for coordinating the many major healthcare infrastructure projects already underway across Australia, managing the risk posed by outsourced vendors is essential to meet delivery windows and maintain consistent standards of work.
Importantly, adequately assessing contractors against minimum compliance standards works to keep everyone safe on site, mitigating the risk of engaging unqualified, inexperienced vendors for the job.

Solutions for robust healthcare compliance with Cm3

As the scale and complexity of healthcare projects grow, so does the need for scalable and intuitive solutions to manage contractors and suppliers within healthcare supply chains. Leading providers are now seeking to engage solutions providers like Cm3 to outsource the prequalification of their vendors, to dramatically decrease the resources required to verify vendors’ qualifications and safety processes.

Cm3’s also recognises the growing need to complete this process quickly and equips procurement managers with a database of compliance-focused contractors across Australia and New Zealand. The Cm3 Marketplace connects experienced and compliant contractors with clients on the Cm3 network that can be sourced quickly and reliably for healthcare projects.

Speak to a solutions expert about introducing Cm3 for managed contractor prequalification and enhanced procurement processes.