Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and the BSFA

Steve Hards

Nearly a month after the launch of the Buying Solutions Framework Agreement (BSFA) the slow trickle of BS-approved press releases still continues at a civil-service-like pace. The latest is from the Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and readers will find a link to it with the others on the list. “Airedale NHS Foundation Trust…has been innovative in the provision of remote patient care for more than seven years. Through the use of video technology, the Trust has been providing clinical services to the home which it developed with support from the Assisted Living Innovation, with Red Embedded, a Yorkshire Technology Company.” No problem with that, but the question of the presence of an NHS organisation sitting on both sides of the framework agreement (as supplier and as a potential customer), the competitive advantage this gives and the enforceability of contract conditions against them, still remains unanswered. TA Soapbox comment.