Award

NHS 111 Wales Online Symptom Checkers

WELSH AMBULANCE SERVICES UNIVERSITY NHS TRUST

This public procurement record has 1 release in its history.

Award

21 Feb 2025 at 13:28

Summary of the contracting process

The Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust has completed the procurement process to award a contract for the supply of an online symptom checker software solution for the NHS 111 Wales website. This contract, worth £765,000, will provide the public with symptom checkers that aid decision-making, offer self-care information, and access urgent unscheduled care. The procurement process was conducted using a negotiated method without the publication of a contract notice due to the absence of competition for technical reasons. The contract was signed on 21 February 2025, with Priority Solutions Inc. being awarded the contract. The solution will integrate with existing 111 Wales systems and be hosted within the Trust’s datacentres.

This tender creates substantial opportunities for businesses specialising in software development, particularly those with expertise in medical information systems and patient engagement tools. Companies experienced in delivering integrated healthcare solutions that align with existing infrastructure will find this opportunity well-suited. The contract also includes the provision of professional services and software licences necessary for the implementation, as well as ongoing support and maintenance services, which could provide further business growth opportunities for suppliers offering ancillary services. Firms capable of creating systems interoperable with existing telephony services and healthcare algorithms, like those used in the 111 Wales service, will be competitive in this procurement landscape.

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Notice Title

NHS 111 Wales Online Symptom Checkers

Notice Description

This contract is for the supply of an online symptom checker software solution for members of the public to access via the 111 Wales Website. The symptom checkers are required for public use, to aid decision making, provide self-care information and access to urgent unscheduled care. The symptom checkers provide an alternative service to the 111 Wales telephony service and this contract will enable the symptom checkers to be based on those triage algorithms currently used by non-clinical call handlers within the 111 Wales telephony service. The symptom checkers will enable a member of the public to answer a series of questions about their symptoms and then provide health information. Depending upon the outcome a person may for example be signposted to contact another service such as a pharmacist. The solution will also enable an end user to enter their demographic details and through integration with other 111 Wales systems enable subsequent remote clinical assessment and call back to be facilitated. The solution is required to be accessible from the 111 Wales Website however whilst the solution will be interoperable with the 111 Wales Website the 111 Wales Website itself is out of scope of this contract. This contract is also for the supply of professional services to enable the implementation of the solution as well as the associated licences for the software. The contract also includes the supply of ongoing support and maintenance services.

Lot Information

Lot 1

This contract is for the supply of a new software solution to replace the online symptom checkers currently deployed on the 111 Wales website. This solution will include a web application providing the public facing front end for the online symptom checker software solution that will be separate to but integrated with the existing 111 Wales website. The 111 Wales online symptom checker software will capture a patient's symptoms and, through the application of an algorithm, provide more information about those symptoms. The output includes details regarding where to go for help, which care services to potentially contact next, and where to find more information about the symptoms. The online symptom checkers will provide educational content and care-service signposting only and does not offer any form of diagnosis or treatment in relation to the symptoms. The purpose of the online symptom checkers is to provide an alternative service to the 111 Wales telephony service based on the same solution ("algorithms") as the non-clinical triage algorithms currently used by call handlers within the 111 Wales telephony service. The solution is required to assess a range of symptoms and health conditions, using clinically validated algorithms and providing no less than the 76-symptom checkers currently available online via the 111 Wales Website. The solution must also provide triage outcome levels that are the equivalent as the 111 Wales telephony service. The online symptom checkers are required to provide clear and easily understood health information that can contain links to other 111 Wales Website pages to provide the end user with additional information where required. The solution is also required to have the ability for an end user to input demographic information at the start of self-triage to provide tailored triage flow and results. In addition, the solution is required to enable demographic information to be transferred to other call handling and triage systems to allow subsequent remote clinical assessment from the 111 Wales telephony service and other local health and wellbeing services across Wales to be able to facilitate a call back if needed. The software solution will be hosted locally within the Trust's datacentres using existing infrastructure already in-place that is currently used to deploy other 111 Wales systems. In addition, this contract is for the supply of professional services to enable the implementation of the solution as well as the relevant software licences for the software itself. The contract is also for the supply of the associated ongoing support and maintenance services.

Procurement Information

The current system used by non-clinical call takers in the 111 Wales telephony service uses proprietary algorithms and the proposed system will be based on these algorithms. No alternative or substitute exists to meet the capability currently in use that could reasonably be configured and/or deployed in the timescale required by the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust (the 'Trust') or without the Trust unreasonably investing a disproportionate amount of public money and Trust time (for example, by deploying clinically validated algorithms based on those currently used within the 111 Wales telephony service and through mitigating the need to invest in new datacentre hardware infrastructure). The proposed contract would be complementary to the current 111 Wales decision support software that is live and in widespread use across the 111 Wales service and configured to specifically fit the Trust processes. The proposed supplier, Priority Solutions Inc is the only supplier capable of supplying a solution that will have the same level of triage outcome levels as the current 111 Wales telephony service. This requirement is essential given the new online symptom checker solution will be required to capture patient demographic details and integrate with and transfer data in real-time to the 111 Wales call handling and triage systems. As well as enable transfer of information and call back from other service providers such as GP Out of Hours. Currently patients are advised to call 111 which then impacts the demand for 111 telephony services. To ensure the appropriate flow of patients between services it is essential triage outcome levels are the equivalent to the existing 111 telephony service. Additionally, there is a lack of a commercial product available with NHS England for example having developed their own in-house solutions. Symptom Checker solutions in the marketplace are generally not targeted towards 111 services but for primary care and emergency departments. Accordingly, there is currently no readily available symptom checker solution capable of deployment in a 111 environment. Only Priority Solutions Inc can supply an interoperable and complementary system.

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-04e689
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/006740-2025
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Goods
Procurement Method
Limited
Procurement Method Details
Negotiated without publication of a contract notice
Tender Suitability
Not specified
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

48 - Software package and information systems


CPV Codes

48000000 - Software package and information systems

48100000 - Industry specific software package

48800000 - Information systems and servers

48810000 - Information systems

48814000 - Medical information systems

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
Not specified
Lots Value
Not specified
Awards Value
Not specified
Contracts Value
£765,000 £500K-£1M

Notice Dates

Publication Date
21 Feb 20251 years ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
Not specified
Award Date
21 Feb 20251 years ago
Contract Period
Not specified - Not specified
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Not Specified
Awards Status
Active
Contracts Status
Active

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
WELSH AMBULANCE SERVICES UNIVERSITY NHS TRUST
Contact Name
Not specified
Contact Email
emma.burns@wales.nhs.uk
Contact Phone
Not specified

Buyer Location

Locality
CWMBRAN
Postcode
NP44 3AB
Post Town
Newport
Country
Wales

Major Region (ITL 1)
TLL Wales
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLL5 South East Wales
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLL53 Gwent Valleys
Delivery Location
TLL Wales

Local Authority
Torfaen
Electoral Ward
Llantarnam
Westminster Constituency
Torfaen

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

PRIORITY SOLUTIONS

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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