The UK's health system has added £1 billion to a tech deal for software and infrastructure after an "engagement" with suppliers.
NHS Shared Business Services (SBS) has published a contract notice for the Digital Workplace Solutions 2 mega-framework, saying it could manage a maximum spend of £2.5 billion in the NHS and other public sector organizations.
The joint venture between the Department of Health and Sopra Steria said the deal – which commits suppliers to pricing in return for indicative spending and ease of procurement – would provide commercial-off-the-shelf software licensing, bespoke software development, and a range of infrastructure equipment and services. The 30 winning suppliers can expect their contracts to begin in May next year and end in 2029.
The starting pistol for the multibillion-pound procurement was fired 13 months after NHS SBS began a "market engagement" with tech suppliers interested in the framework following a prior information notice saying the maximum value would be £1.5 billion over four years. That notice promised to publish the contract in January 2024.
In a statement, a spokesperson for NHS SBS told The Register that since the publication of the first notice it had engaged with the market, suppliers, and customers.
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"The insight provided through our engagement and an increase in spend through the current iteration of the Digital Workplace Solutions framework agreement over the past 12 months is that the replacement one has the potential to see £2.5 billion of spend being directed through it," they said.
The most recent notice says that under the proposed framework NHS SBS would appoint a range of resellers and original equipment manufacturers. The closing date for the competition is in November.
Elected in July, the new UK government has shown a keen interest in NHS technology investment. One of the world's largest health systems is in a "critical condition" following the pandemic and years of austerity.
Prime minister Keir Starmer said in a speech that there would be no extra funding for the NHS without reform. He promised to move from "an analog to a digital NHS."
He cited precision cancer scanners and smartphone glucose monitoring among promising technologies. However, he said patients "really struggled to tell their story, and they have to do this every single time because the records weren't held electronically."
"We've got to have fully digital patient records," Starmer said. ®