Telecare Services Association

NHS PASA Information

Telecare and Telehealth Procurement

  

For some time now TSA has been working with PASA (the NHS Purchasing And Supply Agency) to help shape national guidelines for the procurement of Telecare equipment and maintenance contracts. Independently, the Agency has now concluded that it wants to put in place a National Framework for procurement. To achieve this it has begun the tender process with publication in the OJEU.

 

Visit  http://ted.publications.eu.int/ and follow the links to view the detail of the document (click EN for English). You will need to search under Telecare or Chester - the location of the originator

 

The approach will offer several benefits to Service Providers:

 

  • It will be a nationally negotiated agreement in accordance with EU procurement requirements which means that organisations who purchase within its terms need not repeat the tender process
  •  It will enable organisations to benefit from nationally negotiated standards and prices, or to adopt locally agreed deals as they prefer (always provided that such arrangements comply with EU requirements)

  • The framework will cover primarily equipment supply and maintenance across a range of Telecare and Telehealth equipment and maintenance agreements. This is a four year program commencing April 2006 and it is anticipated that more� common� devices may come on-stream first.

 

 This is a welcome move by PASA and is aimed to enable Service Providers to maximise the impact of their PTG (Preventative Technologies Grant) and other budgets.

 

Together with a number of Service Providers, TSA has been invited to represent the industry at a national procurement workshop to be held in the near future. Also present will be  the Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP), the  DH Policy team, Office of Government Commerce (OGC), NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency, South East Regional Centre of Excellence to help determine the shape of the framework.

 

Naturally, the TSA will:

 

  • Represent members interests to ensure that their case is presented clearly, comprehensively and professionally in the context of what the industry has to offer

  • Keep members informed of major landmarks as the programme develops

  

This programme may hold huge potential for the Telecare sector and so TSA will be at the heart of the debate. Regular updates will be available through the normal channels to members.

The following link takes you to the National Framework Agreement 2007 Review Gate
 http://www.pasa.nhs.uk/pasa/Doc.aspx?Path=[MN][SP]/Products%20and%20Services/Telecare/April2007%20Review%20Gate%20Supplement.pdf