UHB Emergency Paging Service Replacement

UHB NHS Foundation Trust has a requirement to procure a Trust-wide Emergency Paging Solution which will improve patient safety, improve staff welfare, improve communications between individuals and teams, improve operational effectiveness, and improve accountability and governance.<br/><br/>Pagers & bleeps are used at UHB for both emergency and non-emergency communication. They have been the used for many years as the mainstay for requesting a bleep-holder’s attention, but they now are regarded as inefficient and outdated technology. Key issues identified include no record of confirmation that bleeps are received, and communication “blackspots” within the Trust where messages are either received inconsistently or not received at all.<br/>The current solution relies on UHF transmitters across the hospital sites. Part of this solution is an app which enables them to receive pager messages. However, the app does not meet the requirements due to how messages are initiated by the user. It relies on a contact being already set up in the app. The infrastructure is legacy technology and is not 100% reliable.<br/><br/>The purpose of this Prior Information Notice is to enable UHB to gain a better understanding of what sort of providers and how many exist in the market, and improve the confidentiality, integrity, availability and authenticity of its systems. Additional information: Potential bidders are asked to note that the route to market has not yet been decided and therefore the procurement timetable has not been finalised. The Authority will make a final decision on the most appropriate route market following this engagement exercise. This may be a direct award via an existing public sector framework agreement or alternatively, the Authority may decide to run a competitive process via a mini-competition under a framework or an openly advertised procedure. If the latter, the publication of the ITT will include the publication of a Contract Notice, a Contracts Finder notice, and the ITT documents will be published on the Authority’ Atamis e-tendering system.