NHS 24 opens £100m voice and data tender

In an advertisement in the Official Journal of the European Union, published on 16 July 2010, NHS 24 says the contract is part of its Strategic Frontline Applications Programme. The programme aims to procure infrastructure and managed services for voice and data to support its advice services. It expects the value of the contract to be between £50m and £100m over 10 years, with a potential break after seven years. The deal is divided into two lots. The first focuses on patient contact and triage management applications. NHS 24 says: "This application(s) is a key enabler for NHS 24 to provide timely, safe and efficient patient clinical assessment, advice and referral services." The second is for additional infrastructure and managed services. The supplier may also be expected to provide "first line" support and application hosting for the clinical applications outlined in lot one. According to the tender notice, the suppliers could be required to provide systems to other NHS organisations, in particular the Scottish Ambulance Service. Payments will be made through NHS 24. Scotland has been increasing its investment in electronic health projects, including NHS 24. In October last year the Scottish Government announced a 40% increase in funding for telecare and the transfer of the Scottish Centre for Telehealth to NHS 24. Victor Almeida, senior analyst at Kable, said: "This is a large budget, especially for a region the size of Scotland. The scope of lot one is vast and may include elements of Pas and electronic patient records, both of which are very much needed in Scotland. "It is likely that more than one vendor will tackle this opportunity, which will probably set the parameters for data sharing in Scotland's NHS."