Important UK government guidance on safer workplaces during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has issued on Gov.UK specific advisories on workplaces and to keep workers healthy during and after the peak of this pandemic. In addition to those who’ve had to work on-site through the lockdown, as we return to business, this guidance will be helpful in assessing risk and engaging staff in changes such as physical distancing, reconfiguring offices, creating barriers, and reconfiguring work teams.

Eight work situations are identified: 

  1. Construction and outdoor work
  2. Factories, plants, and warehouses
  3. Labs and research facilities
  4. Offices and contact centres
  5. Other people’s homes
  6. Restaurants offering takeaway and delivery
  7. Shops and branches
  8. Vehicles

While not strictly digital health, this is pertinent information for us in our businesses to keep safe, particularly #3-5. Most of us won’t be working remotely forever, and quite a few of us visit homes and other offices. For our US readers, this type of guidance will also be useful–and hasn’t been seen by this Editor from the state or Federal level.

Wanted: an Eye on Tenders (UK)

TTA is seeking an Eye on Tenders for the UK for 2018. This would involve an occasional search for telehealth and telecare tenders on sites such as TED (Tenders Electronic Daily) or Gov.UK Contracts Finder, with a few excursions to the parallel Scottish or Welsh websites. As UK Readers know, in order to access and search these sites for opportunities, you must be able to log in as a supplier or buyer, which our Editors cannot. All our correspondent need do is supply the links as they come up and Editor Donna will do the rest.

This valuable service to our Readers has been provided to date by Susanne Woodman of BRE. We thank her and hope that one of our Readers will be able to carry on. Please join me in appreciation for her services here (comments below). Email Editor Donna in confidence if you are interested in contributing!

Tender Alert: Oxfordshire County Council, Housing & Care 21 Birmingham

Our Tender Watcher, Susanne Woodman, has two more before we break for the holiday season–which may make your 2018 brighter!

  • Oxfordshire County Council: This is for a comprehensive telecare service for call monitoring of telecare alarms, a 24/7 emergency response service for telecare alarms, plus the installation, assessment and review of telecare and associated equipment. The Service Provider(s) will work closely with the Equipment Service Provider. This starts in April 2018 for five years with option to extend for two; value not correctly posted (£1?). Closing 15 January 2018. Gov.UK 
  • Housing and Care 21: This is an open future opportunity for providers to indicate interest in providing a new warden call supplier to maintain the existing stock of warden call products across the estate. The contract will be for one to five years with funding of £500k per year. This includes bridging equipment from analogue to digital. The approach to market date is 9 April 2018 with a start date of 1 July. More information at Gov.UK.

Tender Alerts: Yorkshire assistive tech, Wales DPS for health

Susanne Woodman, our Eye on Tenders, has set her gaze on two high-value UK tender offerings:

  • Yorkshire and the Humber: North Yorkshire County Council is seeking a vendor for Assistive Technology Services to enable people to live in their own homes for longer and reduce demand on social care services. The value of the five-year contract is £4.9m with a start of 01 April 2018 ending 31 March 2023. Tenders must be submitted by 17 January 2018. There is not much information on the Gov.UK page and it’s recommended that you contact Tim Wood of the NYCC at tim.wood@northyorks.gov.uk.
  • NHS Wales Informatics Service (NWIS): The NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership is seeking multiple vendors for its procurement project establishing a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) for Digital Patient Services Partners. According to the tender summary, this will be the first ever DPS created in Health in the UK and within any known ICT market. There are five lots to this tender and it is complicated, so review the information on the Full Notice Text tab on the Sell2Wales site. This Editor suspects the deadline may be in error as it’s out to 30 July 2021!

Tender Alert: NHS SBS/Best Practice Case Studies

Susanne Woodman, our Eye on Tenders, alerts our Readers to a fast-closing bid. NHS Shared Business Services in Salford is looking to procure Best Practice Case Studies – Online Consultations on behalf of NHS England. Bids are due by Friday 3rd November at 10am, with clarification questions due by Wednesday 25th October 2017 noon. Base information is on UK.gov with links to MultiQuote for more information. (Now closed–but see Editor Charles’ comment below on an early closing. Is the fix in?–Ed. Donna)

Tender Alert: Tameside and Nottingham (East Midlands)

Susanne Woodman, our Eye on Tenders, has another ‘August special’. This is by New Charter for their alarm monitoring service in Tameside and Nottingham. This is for all sheltered housing customers and a significant number of community alarm (Lifeline) customers in Nottingham. Current subscribers are in over 1,500 properties. At this point, New Charter is requesting a preliminary market consultation to replace the current service with one contract for a single service provider to go live in June 2018. More information is on Gov.UK with contacts and an attached brief.

Innovate UK’s £12m innovation challenge; Chiaro gains £4.8m for women’s health tech

The Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst program now has a £12m challenge program for innovative projects in several healthcare areas, including:

  • stratified healthcare (both therapy and diagnostic components)
  • advanced therapies (cell and gene therapy)
  • diagnostics
  • digital health
  • enabling medical technologies and devices

The fund was established by Innovate UK, the Medical Research Council and Scottish Enterprise. Deadline for challenge registration is midday 31 May. A few more details: projects must be led by an SME either working alone or with others; projects can range in size from £250,000 to £4 million and to last between 12 and 36 months; businesses could attract up to 70 percent of their project costs. Innovate UK/Gov.UK page.

‘Fem-Tech’ is a new term to this Editor, but it perfectly describes Chiaro with its smart pelvic floor exercise tool and app, Elvie. It was originally grant-funded by Innovate UK, but has gained an additional £4.8 million from Octopus Ventures and Allbright for a total funding of £9.6 million. It is profitable with direct sales of £800,000, which is another proof that innovators ‘playing the niches’ in the current fragmented environment may be the smartest of all. Plans include building on current major retailers including John Lewis and Amazon, developing three more smart female health products and expand into 25 countries. Innovate UK/Gov.UK page  Hat tip for both Innovate UK items to our Eye on Tenders, Susanne Woodman.

Tender alert: London Hillingdon 24/7 telecare monitoring (due 5 May!)

Our Eye on Tenders, Susanne Woodman, has located a just-published telecare tender for the London Borough of Hillingdon UB8 1UW.

Description: The London Borough of Hillingdon (the Council) is inviting tenders from suitably experienced organisations capable of providing a Telecare emergency alarm system and 24- hour telephone support for the Council (the Services).

The specification is split across two service requirements;
A. Social Alarm and telecare 24/7 monitoring services;
B. Provision of an out of hours emergency answering service.

The London Borough of Hillingdon (the Council) currently operates 21 sheltered housing developments across the borough, consisting of 838 units. All sheltered housing accommodation is connected to the current Telecare call handling system provided by Jontek.

The current system is monitored by Council staff 24/7; this would switch 24/7 monitoring to an outside sole contractor. It is a three-year contract starting 1 September and ending 31 August 2020, with an extension of one year. The estimated value is £1.5m.

Application deadline is 5 May. More information is on the Gov.UK Contracts Finder page.

Tender Alert: Innovate UK has £400,000 for tech to aid inflammatory bowel disease patients

Susanne Woodman, our Eye on Tenders, is advising our Readers of a substantial Innovate UK project in the form of a competition–and it is coming up quickly. From their web page:

NHS Scotland, working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Scottish Government, has up to £400,000 to invest in projects that use technology and digital platforms to support and manage inflammatory bowel disease.

The competition is looking for proposals that:

  • help patients manage their health from home
  • promote independence and support people to be more involved in decisions about their care
  • facilitate easier and quicker communication with clinicians

This competition is funded under SBRI (the Small Business Research Initiative) and will have 3 phases – feasibility study, prototype development and pre-commercial testing.

The competition opened on 20 March 2017, and the deadline for registration is at midday on 10 May 2017. There’s a briefing being held in Inverness on 4 April 2017. More information and application link on the Gov.uk website.