A prior information notice published by Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria has invited supplier engagement on an upcoming opportunity for a digital solution to support the North East and North Cumbria Secure Data Environment.
Noting that at present these workflows are “highly manual”, involving emails, spreadsheets and communications between stakeholders; Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria notes that “this results in inconsistent approaches to referral capture, validation, triage, and handoff into governance channels such as the data access committee and public evaluation group.”
Specifically, the solution being sought will be required to streamline the referral and early application intake process for projects and data access requests. Proposals should offer a consistent, auditable, and scalable digital workflow enabling efficient processing of enquiries and research applications.
Expected functions cover structured form intake, document upload, progress tracking for applicants, role-based access, automated workflows for triage and validation, audit logs, version control, and the ability to interface with governance pathways. Systems will work as both a user-facing portal and internal case management platform, HI NENC states.
The opportunity will be developed under Lot 5 of HI NENC’s dynamic purchasing system, with suppliers encouraged to apply “promptly” to ensure acceptance to the framework and that they receive the competition notification once it goes live. An invitation to quote is expected in October 2025, although this is reportedly “subject to change”.
Data use and access across health and care
The Data Use and Access Bill has formally entered into law, in a move the government hopes will cut NHS bureaucracy and accelerate innovation in science and tech. The bill states the intent for interoperability, for real-time access to health information such as pre-existing conditions, appointments, and tests, across different care settings “no matter what IT system they are using”. The government estimates that enabling data sharing across platforms will save NHS staff 140,000 hours per year in admin.
The Home Office has outlined eight strategic shifts to guide efforts to transform digital services and deliver improved outcomes over the next five years in its 2030 Digital Strategy. In particular, its focus is on using AI and automation, investing in systems and platforms, cyber security, use of data, and digital skills.
NHS England has published new data, as part of plans to reform elective care and tackle health inequalities, noting at 29 June 2025, 7,321,879 patients were on the waiting list, with trauma and orthopaedics, ear nose and throat, gynaecology, and ophthalmology, having the highest wait lists.
Ireland’s Health Service Executive has published a national policy defining data field standards, said to provide best practice guidelines for patient facing staff on accurate patient registration and data recording, supporting the successful matching of each patient to their unique individual health identifier. The specifications will apply to all new system procurements, and support existing training and education around standardisation, accuracy, and completeness of patient data, the service notes.
