The clock has started ticking officially for companies aspiring to take a slice of the new NHS IT business with the publication of an OJEC contract notice and supporting documents designed to set the £2.3 billion procurement process in train.
The notice leaves suppliers 37 days to express their interest in becoming bidders for the National Programme for IT and the pace of the procurement promises to be brisk.
In its supporting document the Department of Health (DH) says, “The procurement process will be as rapid as good practice allows. Momentum has increased dramatically in the last three months and the core of the National Programme team is now in place.
”It is important to get the decisions right and we are now in a position to move forward on the procurement of IT. Equally, industry and IT suppliers must begin meaningful activity that will contribute to an efficient procurement process.”
The shape of the procurement has been widely discussed since the national programme was announced last year: the DH will centrally procure a range of products and services to support the implementation of the vision outlined in the strategy, Delivering 21st Century IT Support for the NHS.
The department will then contract with a number of organisations to deliver applications and services across whole healthcare communities. There is a change in previous terminology, however. The lead contractors in consortia lined up to deliver the services – previously referred to as Prime Service Providers (PSPs) – will be known instead as Local Service Providers (LSPs).
The LSPs will be responsible for a list of services headed by Intergrated Care Records Services (ICRS). The emphasis is very much on the integration of services and delivering support.
They will be complemented by two categories of national providers: the National Infrastructure Service Providers (NISPs) and National Application Service Providers (NASPs). The NISPs will be contracted to deliver the enabling infrastructure across the NHS to support improved broadband capacity, complete connectivity and deliver modern e-mail and directory services for all staff. The DH cites the reprocurement of NHSnet as an example of a service covered by national infrastructure.
The NASPs will be contracted to deliver discrete applications services such as a national bookings service or an electronic transfer of prescriptions service. There may also be discrete services around the ICRS such as a data spine or an access service for authorised users.
Rapidity is the word at the top of the document’s list of procurement principles applying to all providers whether they are LSPs, NISPs or NASPs. “This means the commitment of all parties to do things rapidly,” says the DH.
Other principles include:
• Appropriate risk transfer to suppliers
• Having a clear understanding of what the NHS wants to buy
• Ensuring applications and systems perform in a simulation of a live NHS environment before they are purchased
• Buying things that work together as a whole
• Coping effectively with change
• Probity in the procurement process.