NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) framework agreement renewal enables direct commissioning of Hospital at Home services

We are pleased to announce we have been reappointed as a supplier on NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) Patient Discharge and Mental Health Step Down Beds Services Framework Agreement. NHS partners can procure services with HomeLink Healthcare directly via the framework agreement.

About the framework agreement

This NHS SBS framework agreement has been developed to reduce the demand on NHS Trusts by supporting with their adult patient discharge pathways. The framework agreement aims to:

• facilitate transfer of patients from hospital beds to a more appropriate level of care
• supply additional bed capacity within the NHS urgent care system infrastructure by relieving bed pressures within the local health economy
• discharge patients meeting specific clinical criteria into an appropriate care setting, reducing instances of re-admission to hospital
• allow patients to have personalised on-to-one support maintaining continuity of care
• provide a dedicated pathway to hospital discharge management services.

HomeLink Healthcare is a supplier on the following Lots:

• Lot 1: Discharge to Assess Services: facilitates patient discharge not only from emergency departments but also from the wider acute hospital and community care settings.
• Lot 3: Virtual Ward Support Services: supplies a “secondary care” service within a patients care setting for up to 6 weeks. Patients are transferred to the Virtual Ward Support Service following referral from the Trusts’ clinical discharge teams on acceptance by service leads.

“Free to access, our ‘Patient Discharge and Mental Health Step Down Beds Services’ framework agreement is designed to support the transition of patients from hospital, reducing instances of pressure on acute hospital beds, Social Services and re-admissions. In turn, this enables health and care providers to free up capacity to deal with other patients. improve quality of care and health outcomes.” Elaine Alsop, Head of Category – Health, at NHS SBS.

Avoid delays and contract with us directly

NHS partners can use the NHS SBS Patient Discharge and Mental Health Step Down Beds Services framework agreement to directly award contracts to HomeLink Healthcare, saving time and money on the procurement process.

New services can be mobilised in 8-12 weeks. Act now to get a new service up and running within three months and at full capacity within around four months.

1. Develop specification, business case, contracting options and supplier engagement: now!
2. Contracting: one week
3. Service mobilisation: twelve weeks
4. Go live!
5. Ramp up to full capacity: six weeks

Work with us

HomeLink Healthcare has been delivering Hospital at Home services since 2016. As a supplier to NHS SBS’s new framework agreement and its previous iteration which ran for four years from March 2019,  it has been used to procure a wide variety of pathways from a large number of organisations including Trusts and the Community Services.

Find out more about the process of commissioning HomeLink Healthcare to set up a hospital at home service.

Get in touch

To speak to a member of our team about our services, call us on (020) 3137 5370 or contact us. You can tell us about your situation, and we can tell you more about our experience of supporting our NHS partners and how we might be able to help you.