NHS Supply Chain has announced that their new North West England distribution centre is now open and fully operational.

The 400,000 square foot distribution centre located at Gorsey Point, will support 115 NHS Trusts.

The facility is around three times larger than the facility it replaces, providing 60,000 pallet spaces, an eightfold increase of 7,500.

NHS Supply Chain CEO Andrew New said the new facility would improve resilience of the NHS’ supply chain in the North West and provide a more efficient service to NHS organisations in the area.

“NHS Supply Chain’s Gorsey Point facility is a major investment in the North West and a significant part of our long term national growth plans, future-proofing our logistics operation in this part of the country and allowing us to better meet the growing needs of NHS trusts in the region.

The centre will support 360 jobs, with the majority relocating from the smaller previous warehouse in nearby Runcorn.

It will additionally serve 3,500 delivery locations and 18,400 individual requisition points that deliver the products and equipment needed to care for patients across the region.

Andrew added: “The purpose-built facility gives us the capacity to store not only a greater level of stock overall but also a broader range of products used by the NHS, boosting the resilience of our supply chain. This is something NHS trusts really wanted.

“Our reason for being is to help the NHS to put patients first and in this case we are delivering on that by working to make sure clinicians can rely on our supply chain to provide the products and equipment they need to do their job in a reliable, clinically assured and cost efficient way,” said Andrew.

Gorsey Point is located within 3.5 miles of junction 7 of the M62, 5 miles from junction 12 of the M56 and close to the access point onto the Mersey Gateway Bridge, which links Runcorn and Widnes.

The site benefits from connectivity to the regional motorway network as well as the 3M Rail Freight Terminal at Widnes, Garston Docks, The Port of Liverpool, and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.