NHS England has opened a tender worth £16 million to support NHS provider organisations with their Frontline Digitisation programme in reaching a minimum level of digital capability and to have an electronic patient record (EPR) in place by the end of March 2026. This fund will be open to NHS secondary care Trusts providing acute, specialist, community, mental health, and ambulance services across England.
NHS England’s tender notice states that it is seeking a partner to create an experienced, multi-skilled, rapid response intervention service also known as a Tiger Teams service, capable of supporting EPR Delivery. NHS England acknowledges that EPRs are ‘notoriously complex to implement’ with the maturity of the digital, data and technology workforce across England varied, with providers having varying degrees of experience, and skills to implement successfully.
It said: “Trusts are finding it increasingly challenging to obtain good quality, skilled short-term resources, both from the recruitment and contingent labour market.”
“To support Trusts to alleviate this issue, this service will provide Tiger Teams, defined as a group of highly skilled, experienced resources, commissioned to deliver a time-boxed service on behalf of the Trust where other attempts to fulfil the requirement have been unsuccessful.”
The tender notice states that the Frontline Digitisation programme is “not resourced to provide hands-on targeted support into Trusts at the scale required, therefore an additional service is required to ensure the success of the overall programme and individual Trust EPR deployments.” The additional resource will support the further ‘boots-on-ground’ interventions to ensure that certain critical activities to resolve challenges including the associated upskilling and knowledge transfer, are undertaken in a timely and robust manner, increasing the likelihood of a timely and successful implementation. NHS England adds that it will “avoid the costs, risks and reputational damage associated with a delayed and / or sub-optimal go-live in addition to the impact required for the Trust to course-correct.”
A contract notice is expected to be published in March 2024.
We expect Trusts will welcome this extra support given the current challenges of finding sufficient resource in the market with the skills necessary to deliver a successful implementation. The success of any new EPR system whether it’s a Trust’s first, second or even third generation EPR is always going to be contingent on ongoing optimisation underpinned by an empowered digital team.
Do get in touch if you need support with the procurement and or implementation of your EPR system.
Our content explained
Every piece of content we create is correct on the date it’s published but please don’t rely on it as legal advice. If you’d like to speak to us about your own legal requirements, please contact one of our expert lawyers.