NHS England has extended accuRx’s contract offering free video consultation services to GPs, the supplier has confirmed.
accuRx was one of a number of suppliers drafted by NHS England to supply video consultation services freely to GPs at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the deal was due to end this month. Prior to the deal expiring NHS England was reportedly in talks with the supplier to continue to provision of video consultation services.
AccuRx confirmed to Digital Health News that the provision of its video consultation services will remain free to GPs until 31 December, 2021. It was one of 13 suppliers to have their contract extended under the GP IT Futures framework.
But Graham Kendall, director of the Digital Healthcare Council (DHC), raised concerns about the contracts being continued “without open competition”, which he said would deny local GPs “meaningful” choice over digital solutions.
“We understand why contracts were rushed through at the height of the Covid crisis last year with little or no competition, but it’s been clear for many months that the current arrangements were due to lapse,” he told Digital Health News.
“It therefore beggars belief that existing contracts look set to be rolled over without open competition just at the point that the new Digital Care Services catalogue is about to be launched.
“Rolling over incumbent contracts without competition will deny local GPs a meaningful choice in how they provide remote and online consultations, runs contrary to the spirit of local decision making set out in the recent white paper and sends deeply damaging signals to digital healthcare suppliers.”
The Digital Healthcare Council represents a number of digital healthcare suppliers and works to inform the development of policy and regulation in the industry. Two of its supplier members, Push Doctor and Doctorlink, also form part of the GP IT Framework.
A spokesperson for accuRx said the video consultation call off agreement does provide GPs with a “meaningful choice” between suppliers.
“The contract extension provides choice to GPs and CCGs and incentivises competition, while minimising potential disruption to patients and practices,” they told Digital Health News
“This national call off contract was set up under GPIT Futures back in March last year and has always provided meaningful choice between suppliers.
“It only ever covered primary care, as will the extension. The original contract was funded centrally. The costs of the extension contract will also be paid centrally to suppliers, but crucially the relevant costs in each CCG area will be offset against Digital First Primary Care (DFPC) funding that would otherwise be available to that CCG.
“CCGs can choose to opt out of the service and procure their own solutions at any time. This directly incentivises CCGs to go and procure from the new DFOCVC framework, and NHS England is encouraging commissioners to do exactly that.”
Following the deal struck with NHS England during the pandemic, accuRx announced its video consultation services would become chargeable from April 2021 under its accurRx Plus service. It’s accuRx Lite service remains free, but does not cover video consultations, online consultations or appointment reminders.
accuRx Plus launched in January 2021 and also includes patient triage, batch messaging and appointment reminders, and SMS services.
NHS England and accuRx have since signed a call off agreement extension which would see video consultation services remain free to GPs until the end of the year.
accuRx told Digital Health News the extension was designed to incentivise Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) to choose suppliers available on the Digital First, Online Consultation and Video Consultation (DFOCVC) by deducting costs from CCG allocations.
It was first reported that NHS England and accuRx were in talks to extend the agreement by Pulse. The publication reported that CCGs would be covering the cost of the chargeable accuRx services from 1 April to 31 December 2021.
The new £75m Digital First, Online Consultation and Video Consultation (DFOCVC) Framework, launched in December 2020, was designed to expand GPs access to remote monitoring services, including video consultations.
The framework builds on the GP IT Futures framework launched in January 2020. GP IT Futures provides a list of trusted IT suppliers aimed at supporting GPs and commissioners to compare and purchase digital services.
Both frameworks sit under the umbrella of the Digital Care Services catalogue, which the Digital Healthcare Council understands is due to go live soon.
AccuRx, along with a suite of more than 60 suppliers, are included on the GP IT Futures framework.
16 April 2021 @ 09:43
What Mr Kendall fails to recognise that sometimes healthcare is not about competition but rather patient care. Where was his concerns 12 months ago when all the other competition were scrabbling around weeks afterwards to catch up with Accurx. Did he sit in that Monday morning webinar and watch in awe at what Accurx had managed to achieve over the matter of a weekend. We would not have been able to provide the services in the last 12 months without them. There have been odd issues with the services in the last 12 months as you would expect but they are quick to listen to what we say, problems and provide solutions that we need rather than what they think we might want. Where is Mr Kendall’s concerns about other system suppliers who take large sums of money and supply services not fit for purpose, or take weeks or months to solve issues and answer problems we have with comments such as you need to stop running your reports so often – like we choose to do that for the fun of it! I see this extension of the contract as richly deserved for all Accurx have done in the last 12 months to support general practice.
16 April 2021 @ 09:16
Accurx stepped up at the start of the pandemic, producing solutions in days to the remote consultation problem and with exceptional IT support. They are quickly responsive to any reported issues and implement suggestions for service improvement. There are other aspects of NHS IT I’d ditch in an instant but could not practice without Accurx.
16 April 2021 @ 07:46
Accurx have been there for practices from the. beginning of the pandemic improving and evolving with every new development request. Accubook and the whole Covid 19 vaccine programme has been straightforward and reduced the pressure on my Admin team significantly. They have proven themselves abs deserve the contract.
16 April 2021 @ 06:31
AccuRx were lifesavers for our practice. They came in with free software which was a complete game changer. The team was always responsive and helpful. We were delighted when the contract was extended. We couldn’t work without it any more. It’s brilliant. We are so grateful to the Accurx team for their support during Covid.
15 April 2021 @ 22:59
Accurx were timely / efficient and there at the outset – for that we need to be grateful and show the appreciation- no other platform can make that claim