NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care Board have published a tender notice looking for a new partner to help with optimising workflows and patient health management through the delivery of a digital front door.
By introducing a digital front door, the ICB aims to make services more efficient while providing access to products and services that support co-ordinated care and enable “personalised interventions and actions”.
There are two primary focus areas – to allow patients to have more control over their health and care through the use of technology and to adopt a more proactive approach through data and digital-driven insights, which will help with “anticipating health needs” and “providing earlier support to citizens”.
As part of the market engagement for this solution back in November 2024, the ICB noted “improved patient outcomes, enhanced efficiency, improved accessibility, better information, personalised care options, cost-effectiveness and data-driven insights” as key deliverables, while also emphasising the requirement to “meet the care management needs” of their large population.
The digital front door contract has a current value of up to £10 million and is expected to begin in April 2026 for a five-year period, with the tender opening 15 July 2025. Interested partners can find out more on the tender notice page.
A digital front door in health and care: the wider trend
In a recent interview, we spoke with Julian Coe, managing director at X-on Health, to discuss the future of the digital front door in primary care. We covered a range of topics including what good looks like, the importance of the user experience and approaches to improving primary care. We also discussed complicated vs complex in primary care, how best to serve people in a way they want to be served, and how to support primary care with change in the future.
Earlier this year, the Health Service Executive (HSE) Health App was launched in Ireland, offering patients a digital front door to health services. The public launch was welcomed by the Minister for Health as “an exciting milestone” in the journey to digitise patient health records and to “make it easier for everyone to navigate the health service”.
