NHS England has launched an information gathering exercise with an aim to establish a new cloud telephony framework.
The plans are said to form part of a national strategy to set in place a new framework for general practice and provide a sole procurement route for primary care.
A prior information notice has been published to alert existing and potential providers of the cloud telephony framework, that is planned to form part of the existing Digital Care Services Catalogue.
At this stage NHS England intends to commence a market engagement exercise, ahead of an official contract notice to be published in April 2023.
The notice states: “To support the development of the new framework, the Digital Care Services Catalogue Authority are developing a new capabilities and standards model to accurately reflect the functionality and benefits of cloud telephony for primary care.
“Suppliers will be required to meet the requirements of the standards and capabilities model as set out in the Digital Care Services Catalogue Agreement.”
The draft standards and capabilities model which is under development will outline the technical and non-functional requirements, what is expected of a supplier to be compliant and how a supplier will be assessed.
To find out more, please view the notice here.
