LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Healthcare service provider Totally said on Friday that urgent care subsidiary Vocare has been awarded a place on the regional 'Integrated Urgent Care Clinical Support Framework' hosted by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

The AIM-traded firm said Vocare was chosen as the qualified provider to the ambulance service under the new framework, to undertake emergency department validations and redirection in collaboration with the Yorkshire and Humber Integrated Urgent Care and NHS 111 service.

Vocare's practitioners would clinically assess calls taken by NHS 111, and subsequently triage patients to appropriate alternate healthcare services in the region, supporting patient flow and ensuring that the patients that needed to be seen in the emergency department were appropriately directed.

The new framework agreement begins on 1 April, and would run to 31 March 2024.

Totally said the agreement, which was on a call-off basis and dependent on call volumes, would be worth up to £2.7m over the framework term.

Under the initial draw-down contract for 2021-2022, Vocare would provide up to 64,000 emergency department validations, with draw-down contracts for subsequent years to be agreed in line with regional service requirements.

Additionally, the company said Vocare was chosen as one of a small number of qualified framework providers for local clinical assessment services in each of the Yorkshire ICS geographies, being West Yorkshire and Harrogate, South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, and Humber, Coast and Vale.

The initial dialogue under that framework has begun, with Totally set to update the market as appropriate as those discussions progressed.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service provides services to 19 clinical commissioning groups, serving a population of more than five million people across an area of nearly 6,000 square miles of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Finally, Totally also announced that Vocare had been awarded a 12-month contract extension for the provision of GP out-of-hours and minor injuries services to the Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group.

The contract extension was valued at £3.9m.

"We are delighted to be one of the first organisations chosen to be a preferred provider of emergency department validations for the NHS as part of this shift towards the new integrated care systems (ICS) framework," said chief executive officer Wendy Lawrence.

"Being one of the few selected as part of this competitive process is testament to the hard work of our staff and the quality of services we provide in the region."

Lawrence said that as the NHS moved away from large public sector tendering for services, it was looking to be "quicker and more efficient" in responding to shifts in demand across the country and, as such, was looking to appoint partners that it could proactively work with going forward, without the need for lengthy procurement processes.

"Having been selected as one of these providers, Totally can now rapidly mobilise services in response to the shifting demands of the Yorkshire Ambulance Service without needing to go through further formal processes.

"I am also delighted to announce another contract extension with Vale of York CCG for the provision of services in the region.

"Our staff continue to work tirelessly alongside the NHS and the quality of the care we offer is reflected in the NHS' confidence in our service provision up and down the country."

At 1427 GMT, shares in Totally were down 0.8% at 31p.

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