NHS Shared Business Services (NHSSBS) has formally announced the second iteration of its framework agreement, Technology Enabled Care Services 2.
The framework is designed to respond to the need within the NHS and social care sector to free up beds, reduce the backlog of appointments, speed up patient discharge, and reduce the burden on the stretched social care sector.
The framework has been designed with contributions from NHS England (NHSE) Transformation Directorate, local authorities, national technology enabled care (TEC) policy makers like TEC Cymru, as well as industry bodies including the TSA (TEC Services Association).
The announcement comes at a time in which the NHS is grappling with longer hospital waiting times, hospitals being fuller than pre-pandemic and a discharge crisis.
Virtual wards feature as a key part of the recovery plan. There is a plan to scale up capacity from a current 7,000 virtual ward beds to 10,000 this autumn ready for the winter.
The new framework enables GP Practices, hospitals, health centres and emergency services to procure remote clinical monitoring, intelligent activity monitoring, patient controlled personalised healthcare records and virtual ward solutions which can support health and care professionals to deliver effective and efficient clinical care for patients.
Adam Nickerson, Head of Category - Digital & IT Procurement Frameworks, at NHS SBS commented: "The coronavirus pandemic added to waiting lists and the knock-on effects of a lack of beds in the NHS and social care sector. As such, NHSE is looking to deploy virtual ward beds to scale up capacity from 7,000 to 10,000 this autumn, ready for next winter.
"As part of this ambition, ICSs are expected to deliver virtual ward capacity equivalent to 40-50 virtual ward beds per 100,000 people by December 2023, with virtual ward services developed across ICSs and provider collaboratives, rather than individual institutions. In so doing, improving health and integrated care across the health and care system.
"The framework agreement enables ICSs and provider collaboratives - from housing authorities to local authorities, to strategically source and quickly buy a mixture of goods be it a single, bundled or a fully managed service, which work across a region. It means they can better plan and deliver joined up services and improve the health of the population across their regional wing of care."
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
