Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has selected Flok Health to supply digital MSK triage and management services, at a total cost of £400k.
The trust has contracted Flok Health to provide a fully managed service offering a “complete alternative” to traditional community physio pathways, with 24/7 digital triage and remote treatment, combining AI-enabled assessment with HCPC-registered physio oversight.
According to Berkshire Healthcare, expectations for the supplier include the maintenance of robust safety and governance arrangements, integration with existing systems, and taking on full responsibility for clinical outcomes, patient management, incident reporting, and service governance.
The award was reportedly made based on a series of criteria, with technical compliance, capability, and quality assurance making up 50 percent of the weighting, followed by price with 25 percent, data and system security with 15 percent, and social value creation with ten percent.
The contract is set to run from November 2026 to November 2027, with an option to extend for a further 12 months.
Earlier this month, Berkshire Healthcare announced that it was looking to engage with the market on the potential for a digital clinical triage service capable of assessing MSK conditions and navigating patients to relevant services “without human intervention”. According to the notice, the tool will serve BHFT services covering community physiotherapy, specialist physiotherapy, the integrated pain and spinal service, and MSK podiatry.
Berkshire Healthcare moves on to set out requirements for the solution, including that it should be able to receive referrals from primary care, community services, and secondary care via the electronic referral service, as well as from patients as self-referrals through an online portal that BHFT is developing.
Berkshire Healthcare also recently shared plans to redesign care pathways, transform care, and realise efficiency and productivity improvements with the use of AI, automation, and digital tools.
In its five-year strategy to 2031, the trust commits to innovation, transformation, and system reinvestment in proactive, multidisciplinary neighbourhood healthcare, delivering on the three shifts outlined in the 10-Year Plan, improving access to primary care, and improving outcomes for local communities.
A trust productivity and efficiency programme has been initiated, with an initial income and expenditure planning gap of £15 million for 2026/27, and a two percent annual productivity growth requirement in tariff, it notes. A leadership group is reportedly scoping priorities in line with required benefits to deliver financial sustainability over three-to-five years.
Wider trend: The future of patient care
For a recent HTN Now webinar on the role of digital in delivering neighbourhood health, HTN was joined by an expert panel including Fay Johnstone, acute virtual ward matron at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells (MTW) NHS Trust; Mayur Vibhuti, chief digital, data and intelligence officer at Kent and Medway ICB and Surrey and Sussex ICB; and Saleem Haider, people participation lead for digital at East London NHS Foundation Trust. Our panellists tackled key areas including national guidance and models, what “good” looks like for digital in neighbourhood health, challenges, approaches, and practical examples.
The latest winter plan for 2026/27 from Essex ICB has explored the role of digital and data across its system coordination centre, neighbourhoods, PCNs, ambulance services, virtual wards, and Hospital @ Home. The ICB sets out priorities across eight domains, looking at system coordination, organisational resilience, prevention, urgent care, patient flow, digital visibility and operational intelligence, community and mental health access, and workforce and leadership. A main pillar of the plan is the Essex system coordination centre (SCC), which will maintain a real-time view of demand and capacity across services, with an aim to support proactive management of pressures and timely decision making, the ICB shares.
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust is looking to “the road ahead” in its latest trust strategy, recognising the increasing role that tech, data, and AI will play in shaping urgent and emergency care delivery. Over the next decade, the Emergency Operations Centre will increasingly be used as the front door to urgent and emergency care, the trust states, and as demand becomes more complex, the ability to assess need, coordinate care, and make clinical decisions at the earliest opportunity will be central. With this in mind, it expects digital, data, and AI to shape care delivery, including by supporting clinical judgment, improving patient experience, and helping services respond more effectively to growing demand.
