The health service has awarded a pair of contracts to cover ongoing iteration and upgrade work on the NHS 111 Online patient service, as well as various supporting staff systems

NHS England has signed two tech contracts cumulatively worth almost £90m to cover the provision of maintenance and upgrades for the health service’s suite of digital tools to support urgent care delivery.

The centrepiece of the NHS’s urgent and emergency care (UEC) digital offering is the NHS 111 Online service, a text-based tool available via web and app through which citizens can get advice for urgent – but not life-threatening – physical or mental health issues.

Also part of the digital portfolio are three platforms for use by NHS and social care staff, as well as accredited supplier personnel. This includes the NHS Pathways system used to support staff in conducting clinical triage over the phone, and then directing patients to the appropriate care services.

Linked into this system is the Directory of Services national database of NHS services. The UEC digital portfolio also includes the NHS Service Finder, a search tool which “is primarily aimed at healthcare professionals who already have a care pathway in mind” for a patient.

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To assist with the delivery of these digital services over the coming years, NHS England has signed a 36-month contract with consultancy Accenture. The agreement, which is valued at £49.3m, is intended to “support the continuous iteration activities of the digital urgent and emergency portfolio”, according to newly published commercial information.

Alongside this deal, the health service has also awarded a £37.4m contract to another tech firm: Kainos.

The accompanying procurement notice reveals that the IT provider will “support the transformational activities of the digital urgent and emergency team”.

Such transformation will initially focus on the NHS Pathways system and its integrated Directory of Services, as well as the UEC’s data function.

“The… contract will, when required, also span transformation activities for other areas and products within UEC across all delivery teams,” the notice added.

Both the contracts came into effect on 15 August, and run until 2027. The aggregate value of the agreements is £86.7m.