Life Sciences Hub Wales has developed an online portal to enable industry to upload offers of support for the health and social care sectors for consideration by NHS Wales.
Life Sciences Hub Wales, with the support of innovation technology company Simply Do, has developed an online portal to enable industry to upload offers of support for the health and social care sectors for consideration by NHS Wales.
The organisation has been appointed as the sole point of contact for industry by Welsh Government and is taking the lead for initial engagement. It is working closely with NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and National Procurement Services, and all offers of support should be directed to the portal.
Neil Frow, Managing Director of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, said:
“We are grateful to Life Sciences Hub Wales for developing this new portal and taking the pressure off processing initial enquiries. It will enable us to focus us on following-up the referrals from this exercise and procuring products more quickly to support our frontline services.”
The portal will identify appropriate businesses who are potentially able to supply items that that are on NHS Wales’ critical products list. It allows businesses to register contact details, business information, product information and upload relevant evidence of product regulatory compliance.
The online tool also forwards qualified offers of products straight through to NHS Wales Shares Services Partnership in the correct format, with the right information to progress offers into the procurement process.
The portal can be accessed through Life Sciences Hub Wales dedicated Covid-19 webpage.
Commenting on the portal launch, Cari-Anne Quinn, CEO of Life Sciences Hub Wales, said:
“Our remit is to facilitate collaboration between industry, health and social care. We are pleased to be working with our procurement colleagues and taking an all-Wales approach in responding to offers of support from industry as we face the demands of Coronavirus and the pressure on our health and care systems.”
Life Sciences Hub Wales is providing training and portal access to colleagues from NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership, National Procurement Services and Welsh Government ESNR to increase the number of technology and procurement experts focussed on enquiry processing.
For further information on the portal and the process involved, a series of frequently asked questions is available online.