Request for Information - The Provision of Telehealth Services on behalf of NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group

NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (LCCG) is seeking information from Providers of Telehealth Services which it will use to help refine its commissioning approach and inform the development of its service specification.

LCCG is engaging early with potential service providers for Telehealth Services.

The aim of this exercise is to gauge interest in this opportunity and field for innovative or competitive proposals to improve our local provision. Feedback from the market will help determine our procurement strategy.

Telehealth (often referred to as remote patient monitoring) - refers to the use of various point-of-care technologies to monitor a patient's physiological status and health conditions. It involves electronic sensors or equipment that monitors vital health signs remotely from home or while on the move. Readings are transmitted to a response centre or a clinician's computer where it is monitored against parameters set by the individuals' clinician. Evidence that vital signs are outside of 'normal' parameters triggers a response, allowing the clinician to monitor the health vital signs and make decisions about potential interventions in real time, without the patient needing to attend a clinic.

The current service offers a health technology service to over 1600 residents per annum in Liverpool; it makes Liverpool the city with one of the largest health technology services in Europe. LCCG have set aside a budget of circa £1.2M per annum (including VAT) to further widen the reach of the service, benefiting more people with COPD, heart disease and diabetes. LCCG wish to continue to build the evidence base around impact and to further refine and enhance the service to maximise benefits.

LCCG are seeking to procure a Telehealth service provider to deliver a flexible and innovative service while also demonstrating the capacity to upscale the current service to allow for the wide-scale implementation of health technology across the region.

The Telehealth service requires:

• Provision of patient equipment, hardware, software and also related support services including set up at patients home.
• Delivery of educational content, Training patients both how to use the equipment and how to manage their conditions
• Execution of individual patient surveys
• The monitoring of vital signs through equipment such as blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, etc.
• Input into service and software design to further improve the service provision.
• Interoperability and communication with GP record systems and PHR systems for on-going self-management.

LCCG intends to retain the back-end clinical monitoring and clinical support elements of the Telehealth service as part of their Community Health Services provision. We welcome suggestions regarding the most effective demarcation between the clinical and non-clinical aspects of the service.

Request for Information; we would like to hear views from interested Providers.

Additional information: If Providers would like to contribute please complete the attached Request for Information (RFI) Questionnaire for your submission.

Responses should be provided as a single document and should not exceed the stated word limit per question. Submissions in excess of this word limit may not be read. All submissions will be treated confidentially.

The deadline for submissions is 2pm on 24th February 2016