GP IT Futures on behalf of NHS England is making available to order a range of Video Consultation solutions. These are solutions which offer some form of Video Consultation capability and which have been assured through a demonstration with the GP IT Futures team. The The ‘Digital First Online Consultation and Video Consultation (DFOCVC) Framework’ sits within the Digital Care Services Catalogue and is the primary mechanism for procurement of Online Consultation (OC) and Video Consultation (VC) systems for general practice but will also provide a buying route for any NHS customer (noting that there are different funding arrangements for other NHS providers). The DFOCVC Framework replaced the NHS England Online Consultations DPS and the ‘eConsultations – Patient/Service User to Clinician’ Capability under GPIT Futures.
Standards and Capabilities
Solutions which are available via DFOCVC have been reviewed by NHS Digital to validate their compliance with various Standards, such as Information Governance and others. The Capabilities provided by solutions have also been subject to an assessment against Information Governance and Clinical Safety requirements where relevant to the solution.
A number of these solutions will be contracted centrally by NHS England and as such are made available free of charge to service recipients. Service recipients are not tied in to a Solution and will be free to select an alternative solution if it is appropriate to do so.
To purchase a service for your practice(s) if you’re a GP Practice / CCG / PCN or Federation:
Understand your Video Consultation requirements by practice and any relevant technical constraints
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Browse the list of available solutions in the Catalogue
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Select the solution that best meets your requirements
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Contact the supplier directly to confirm your requirements including a list of practices to receive the service, and arrange implementation. In some cases the software is self-serve and the supplier can advise you how to do that
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The supplier will implement the solution and report back to NHS Digital on your behalf to confirm service go-live and that the service is stable. Where the software is self-serve the supplier will report to GP IT Futures when the volume of consultations has exceeded the threshold of 10, this is deemed to be equivalent to you accepting the service
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If you wish to add or remove practices from receiving the service, you can arrange this with the supplier directly
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You can raise any serious performance problems with the supplier in the first instance, and report to gpitfutures@nhs.net where the supplier has not addressed such problems
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assessment by NHS Digital, which validates that the solutions are able to deliver the Capabilities as stated. The full Standards and Capabilities model for DFOCVC is available via Digital First Online Consultation & Video Consultation - Confluence (atlassian.net).
Standards and Capabilities are used across the Digital Care Services Catalogue, to describe functional or technical requirements. The following page explains these terms in more detail Capability and Standards Overview - Buyer Guidance - Confluence (atlassian.net)
Buying from DFOCVC
DFOCVC solutions are available to purchase for NHS bodies, including Primary Care, Secondary Care and others.
There are three procurement procedures available under the DFOCVC Framework. They are:
- low complexity contracts valued up to £40,000. The decision to execute a Direct Award for a DFOCVC Catalogue solution can be determined using information on the DFOCVC Catalogue
Further Competition On-Catalogue
- low complexity contracts valued up to £250,000. A Further Competition On-Catalogue procedure can be executed using information available on the DFOCVC Catalogue and requires an evaluation of information published via the DFOCVC Catalogue to determine suitability.
Further Competition Off-Catalogue
- high complexity and high-value contracts. A Further Competition Off Catalogue procedure requires an Invitation to Tender issued to DFOCVC Catalogue suppliers, and an evaluation process informed by information on the DFOCVC Catalogue
The DFOCVC Catalogue is available via DFOCVC framework - results (digital.nhs.uk)
For support with making purchasing decisions via DFOCVC please contact commercial.procurementhub@nhs.net