Software package and information systems

Tender description

NHS England is using technology to empower patients and make it easier for clinicians to deliver high quality care and enabling patients to seamlessly navigate the service as part of its digital transformation strategy. The Online Consultation programme is a contribution towards this ambition. As part of the NHS General Practice Forward View, a £45 million fund has been created to contribute towards the costs for practices to purchase online consultation systems, improving access and making best use of clinicians' time. This funding is part of the General Practice Development Programme; building capacity for improvement through free training, spreading innovations from around the country using the 10 High Impact Actions and funding for new ways of working. The NHS General Practice Forward View envisaged a future for the procurement of primary care digital services based on national and regionally negotiated buying frameworks. It also signalled an intention to establish a national procurement vehicle for the cost-effective purchase of online consultation tools and an investment of £45m to contribute towards the costs for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), General Practices and General Practice affiliations to purchase Online Consultation systems in primary care. As such, NHS England's National Commercial and Procurement Hub are seeking to establish a national Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for the procurement of online consultation systems. This DPS, once established, will allow NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and other identified contracting authorities, to procure online consultation systems on a regional/local basis.