Consolidated procurement is when multiple contracts for medication and healthcare supplies from multiple healthcare providers are bundled together in a single tender.

The advantages of this for social security and the healthcare system include:

• Better prices and higher quality in medication and medical supplies: public-sector procurement is not fragmented, which leads to more aggressive competition among bidders and may consequently enable savings to be made – public-sector healthcare providers can thus reduce their costs and enjoy healthier finances.
• An increase in supply levels, improving user perception of healthcare services.
• Timely delivery.
• Increased transparency in tenders: agreements can be struck with the private sector committing themselves to self-regulation, which increases competition in procurement processes.
• Support from external actors, which improves governance of the process.