The provision of mainstream telehealth and telecare services edged closer this week with the award of a framework for telehealth and telecare solutions by Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO), one of the UK’s largest public sector procurement organisations. ESPO has put together a framework with three lots that can be used by anyone in the public sector to procure telehealth and telecare equipment, managed services and consultancy services.
The suppliers on the framework, which runs until 2017, are a mixed bunch (see here). They include some familiar names from the SITS world such as BT, CSC, Capita Managed Services, PA Consulting and InTechnology; as well as some more specialist players from the worlds of telecare and telehealth tech - such as Kokomo Healthcare, Medvivo Group, Philips Healthcare, BOC (Healthcare) and Tunstall Healthcare. But there are also an assortment of less familiar names, including several with a social housing background such as Circle Housing Group and Herefordshire Housing.
BT has done particularly well on the framework. It was selected as the sole provider of an online catalogue of telehealth and telecare equipment (which can be used by individuals wishing to spend their personal budgets as well as service commissioners), and is one of nine suppliers on the framework to provide managed telehealth and telecare services, as well as a provider of consultancy services.
Although this of course only a framework with no guarantee that hard cash will follow, it’s a good strategic win for BT which is hoping to build on its contract with Cornwall (see here) to “become the largest supplier of telehealth services in England”. With its high street brand and national reach, BT is well placed to take advantage of its early success in the UK telehealth market and it appears determined to do so. In the process, however, as with all suppliers to this nascent market, it will need to be patient and evolve its offerings with the market (PublicSectorViews subscribers can read our views on the emerging UK telehealth market in Telehealth: the Next Big Thing?).
In other healthcare news, this week has also seen the beginning of the tender process for the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Service contract currently run by McKesson. According to the tender documents, the contract to run the Oracle-based ‘single workforce management tool’ for 5 years and 9 months (with the option of a two-year extension) is now valued at £200-£400m. With McKesson’s UK IT business currently up for sale, there’s a good chance a new supplier will be taking over from August 2015 so expect a lot of interest in the deal (see ESR tender due as NHS IT activity mounts for more background).