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.
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.
“We are grateful to Life Sciences Hub Wales for developing this new portal and taking the pressure of processing initial enquiries,” said Neil Frow, Managing Director of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership. “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. https://lshubwales.com/call-industry-collaboration-fight-coronavirus
“Our remit is to facilitate collaboration between industry, health and social care,” said Cari-Anne Quinn, CEO of Life Sciences Hub Wales. “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 here. https://lshubwales.com/frequently-asked-questions-offering-support-covid-19
Frequently asked questions about the process for addressing the immediate needs of NHS Wales
1. Where should offers of support from suppliers be sent?
Welsh Government has appointed Life Sciences Hub Wales to collate all offers of support to health and social care in relation to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Life Sciences Hub Wales has established an innovation portal which sets out detailed requirements for businesses to make a submission. There are specific challenges in place and submissions will only be accepted that align with these.
Businesses can access the portal through the Life Sciences Hub Wales website.
2. What is the role of Life Sciences Hub Wales?
Life Sciences Hub Wales is under-taking a facilitation role. It is not a decision-maker and has no budget or responsibility for the direct purchasing of products.
3. What are the current priority needs?
There are two main categories on the NHS Critical Items List:
- Medical Devices
- Personal Protective Equipment
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise and increasing numbers of patients require hospitalisation it will be important to ramp up the manufacturing and availability of medical devices such as ventilators, oxygen monitors and point of care testing equipment.
Ensuring medical staff also have access to hand sanitisation products as well as appropriate PPE, including face masks, eye protection, gowns, shoe covers and disposable gloves - all of which are currently experiencing shortages - is critical to minimising the spread of infection.
All other requests are being logged and kept for future reference in the event that this information is needed and the product range extended further.
4. What is included in the Critical Categories List?
The current Critical List of items can be accessed via the Life Sciences Hub Wales website, included as point four on the online version of this FAQ list.
5. What are the checks that are undertaken?
There is guidance which has been issued by Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (SMTL) and include the following requirements:
- Pre-Certification essential information for manufacturers who wish to engage with NWSSP Procurement & SMTL – COVID-19 derogations and exemptions
- Regulatory Legislation
- Product Classification
- Regulatory compliance documentation
- Relevant standards – test certificates
- Regulation Classification
6. What is SMTL involvement in the process?
The Surgical Materials Testing Laboratory (SMTL) is part of the Welsh NHS, funded mainly by the Welsh Assembly Government, and based at Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend. SMTL is part of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership (NWSSP). Their core service is to provide testing and technical services regarding medical devices to the Welsh NHS, enabling procurement services for NHS Wales and others in the NHS to undertake evidence based purchasing.
More information is available on the SMTL website.
7. What happens when I make a submission?
Life Sciences Hub Wales will undertake a review of the submission to ensure that it conforms with the requirements of the call, as well as some standard business checks.
Once this exercise has been completed, a decision will be taken as to whether the submission is appropriate to be referred.
At this stage, businesses that are being referred will be informed. The organisation to which the submission has been referred will then make contact directly, if it wishes further details and/or proceed.
If a submission has not been considered appropriate, the business will be informed. The submission will be entered into our business pipeline and kept on record, should opportunities arise in the future when contact would be made.
We are currently receiving a high volume of queries from businesses offering their services. We are processing them as quickly as possible and in line with the specific needs of NHS Wales at this time and will get back to you as soon as we are able.
8. What happens if I can't access the innovation portal?
In rare cases, you will need to request permission from your IT administrator prior to accessing the portal. The following domain names should be provided to your IT administrator so that they can be added to an "allow list": *.simplydo.co.uk, *.amazonaws.com and sdi.click
9. If I am not a supplier but an individual offering support who do I contact?
If you are an individual and think you can help in the fight against COVID-19, we want to hear from you.
Submit your details on our website lshubwales.com and we can help by linking you up with people and businesses who can assist you to make a real difference to lives in Wales and beyond.