The North of England Commercial Procurement Collaboration are to launch a £1.4 bn procurement framework for external help for discharge and community services. The procurement was launched after consulting with around 25 trusts. The framework will cover several categories, including the supply of intermediate care beds, mental health discharge services, walk-in centres and clinical assessment and triage services.
The collaboration said the new framework agreement had come from “direct consultation with our customer NHS trusts”, which include several large acute providers including Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, and University Hospitals of Leicester.
The new framework agreement is understood to be around twice the size of an existing agreement that was provided by NHS Shared Business Services and launched in 2019.
Full story in The HSJ, 20 August 2020
