NHS Improvement has taken a step in its plan to develop a digital staff passport for NHS England.
It has published a prior information notice for input from suppliers on what relevant technologies can provide, saying it wants to establish a longer term solution than the interim version used in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is aimed at enabling staff to move freely between NHS buildings and organisations with minimal bureaucracy.
It is planned that employees will be able to carry a verified record of their clearance on a smartphone app. This would include name, date of birth, national insurance number, a photograph, professional registration details, basic details on employment checks, basic details of current employment and a confirmation of occupational health clearance.
The Covid passport makes it possible to share information confirming that employees have gone through the relevant checks, has been used by full time employees and staff bank workers, and has provided a legal framework for a new version based upon the toolkit for enabling staff movement
The market notice says NHS Improvement wants to “better understand what the providers of digital passport technologies are able to offer and establish a new service line for digital staff passport providers under the Health System Support Framework to ensure a broad and open market is created”.
Image from iStock, Omar Osman
