Care Alliance and partners shortlisted for Covid-19 Outstanding Response procurement award

The System C & Graphnet Care Alliance, NHS South, Central and West (SCW), and Synertec have been shortlisted in the UK National Government Opportunities Public Procurement Awards for the Covid-19 Outstanding Response – NHS and Healthcare Organisations category. 

The nomination reflects the successful creation by SCW of an Immunisation Management Service for the NHS. The service was designed to be at the core of the national vaccination programme for both flu and Covid-19.

With the System C & Graphnet Care Alliance providing the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS), and the hybrid mailer service delivered by Synertec, the three partners worked hand-in-glove alongside the commissioner, NHS England, Public Health England (PHE), and NHSD/NHSX to design the service to drive uptake of vaccination.

Highly regarded across the public, private and third sectors, the Awards celebrate the best achievements in public procurement. Several new categories have been added this year to reflect the exceptional circumstances during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The partnership worked closely alongside Public Health England and NHSD/NHSX to develop the core IT system to support England’s vaccination programmes for flu and Covid-19.  Currently, the system manages vaccination details for over 60m people.   

All vaccinations given at an individual patient level are recorded in NIMS.  It then enables patients in the various priority groups to be sent letters or text message invitations according to schedules, which are matched to the availability of vaccines. NIMS also includes a data capture service, which collects details of patients at the point of vaccination and a reporting service which allows progress to be monitored at any level from nationally to individual GP practices.

Winners will be announced at the Awards ceremony in Birmingham on 15 September.