Daily Insight: Opening time

NHS England is proposing a new framework for buying primary care IT – worth up to £1bn – which it hopes will lead to “diversification” of suppliers.

It issued a prior information notice – the first step in its tendering process – for what it calls the “digital services for integrated care suite of frameworks”, worth up to £976.8m.  

In market engagement documents seen by HSJ, NHSE says it will engage with suppliers – including new market entrants – which could “materially improve the quality and range of products available” in the approved catalogue for primary care.

In the GP electronic patient record market, there has long been concern in the service about the dominance of two suppliers, Emis and TPP.

The new framework aims to continue the work of the GP IT Futures framework, which previously set out to address this duopoly but expired in March after three years.

It also looks to include community pharmacy system suppliers in the catalogue for the first time, and to provide tools to expand digital access and triage, which is a key to the recently published primary care recovery plan. 

Thought leadership

The NHS’s chief executive was in reassurance mode yesterday when she said that NHSE needs to be “really thoughtful” before it makes interventions.

Following her keynote speech at NHS ConfedExpo in Manchester, Amanda Pritchard was asked about “her vision for the future”, now that powers have been devolved to integrated care systems.

Mrs Pritchard admitted “earned autonomy” in relation to ICSs – a phrase she has previously used but has jarred with many local leaders – was “not quite the right phrase”.

“It feels like we’re using yesterday’s language for today’s ways of working. I know it’s not quite the right word, but I can’t think of a better one at the moment,” she said.

“What I am asking my own organisation to do is make sure that we are really thoughtful about all of those different things that we do, and we are increasingly really intentional about which of those [tools] you can use in different circumstances [in regards to performance and accountability].”

Mrs Pritchard used her speech to thank staff for their service during an unprecedentedly challenging era and tried to galvanise leaders and highlight the service’s achievements ahead of its 75th birthday on 5 July.