Infection Prevention Control eSurveillance Solution PIN

Scottish Government and NHS Scotland are exploring options for a single national IPC eSurveillance solution that will ensure consistent application across all of NHS Scotland. This will replace the existing disparate systems across Health Boards and action the recommendation set out in the Infection Prevention Workforce Strategic Plan – 2022 to 2024 ‘To progress the work for a national eSurveillance system for Scotland, with the support of local and national stakeholders’. The Infection Prevention Workforce: Strategic Plan for 2022 to 2024 was published in 2022. This Workforce Plan aims to build capability of Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS), Health Protection (HP) (with relevance to IPC) and IPC workforce in all health and care settings, to enable recovery and development, reflecting on the need for planning post pandemic across all health and care and as part of the wider system infection management needs. The eResources Subgroup review found that NHS Scotland would benefit from a single IPC eSurveillance solution both at local and national level. To ensure the implementation of a single solution the Workforce Plan includes the recommendation ‘to progress the work for a national eSurveillance solution for Scotland, with the support of local and national stakeholders’. A national solution will enable a common approach to IPC management. The solution will include having up-to-date information available at the point of care, irrespective of care provider or care setting. It will include reporting and management at a national level which will inform and support effective decision making, and prioritisation of future policy requirements. Information and digital systems (eSurveillance) have already positively supported the management of IPC in Scotland. This was extremely important during the COVID-19 pandemic. The information can also be used by National Boards to support local management of these situations. However, boards are not consistent in their approach which brings challenges to the implementation of a national ‘whole system’ approach. Currently nine boards have different versions of a single digital system and therefore there is no standardisation or national approach to surveillance and reporting. The remaining boards have bespoke systems including web-based systems and excel spreadsheets. Issues presented by current Status include: - There is a recognised lack of interoperability and integration for IPC systems with other electronic information systems across health and care. This impacts on the ability to share information and IPC alerts across boards and the care sector. - Current systems do not allow for boards to report outbreaks and incidents centrally in a standardised and efficient way. This impacts on the ability of organisations including PHS to make timely decisions and monitor trends. - During COVID-19, the existing systems did not support effective and timely national decision making. The solution’s functionality is essential for providing IPC services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and must have an extremely high degree of resilience in order to minimise any periods of scheduled or unscheduled downtime. Vendors of future solutions should note that this resilience should include but not be limited to Failover and Disaster Recovery of the system with limited technical intervention. This soft market test is being conducted to determine what solutions may be available, determine the scope of any future procurement to enable the delivery of a national solution, and to ascertain indicative costs. Additional information: A questionnaire has been attached to this notice. Please complete and respond as per the instructions in the document. This is a market testing exercise which will allow the Authority to consider future options in this area.