Optimising NHS Print and Document Workflow Procurement in 2026

Today, strategies for procuring managed print, document software and information solutions are evolving to meet critical healthcare priorities. We’ve seen those aims reflected in initiatives like the NHS 10 year plan, where every part of the healthcare service is guided to uncover greater efficiencies as part of an ambition for a fully digital NHS, whilst also delivering cost savings.

In this blog, we cover:

• Procurement act 2023: balancing cost-effectiveness with strategic value
• The need for operational efficiency
• Thoughts from our UK and Ireland Bid Centre Manager
• The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill
• Choosing the right route to market

The Procurement Act 2023 positions value for money as a core objective of public procurement. We notice a change in terminology from ‘most economically advantageous tender’ (MEAT) to ‘most advantageous tender’ (MAT) and whilst this adjustment does not alter policy; rather, it clarifies that contracting authorities are not required to award contracts based on lowest price or cost, nor must price always take precedence over non-price factors.¹

In practice, this encourages a more balanced approach to managed print procurement enabling the NHS to take steps toward long-term strategic aims related to:

• The need for operational efficiency
• Security posture
• Digital integration through automation of workflows.

Every day, around 1.7 million patient interactions² generate documents like records, discharge summaries and referrals. Despite ambitions for a paperlite NHS, print, scan, and copy remain essential. Forecasts predicted a 7.58% rise in scan volumes by 2025³; driven by digitisation of documents, sustainability and efforts to minimise physical filing.

This increase highlights why procuring solutions that streamline the post-scan journey such as classification, metadata tagging, and secure routing into EPR systems are becoming critical for efficiency as NHS leaders work towards a 2% year-on-year productivity gain for the next three years⁴. Ultimately, strategic procurement of these technologies is key to building a truly patient-centric, productive NHS back office.

As the NHS continues to work on an integrated care future, we asked our, Bid Centre Manager Nicola Bartlett two questions:

1) What’s the foremost aspect of security within NHS tenders you’d like to engage with?

Nicola: “I’d like to see more emphasis on how security requirements link to interoperability - because when systems connect, the risk surface changes. Procurement needs to consider security and integration together, not in isolation.”

2) Why is integration such a critical factor in procurement decisions?

Nicola: “Because the NHS doesn’t just need standalone tools - it needs solutions that fit into a wider ecosystem. If print, document management, and workflow automation don’t integrate seamlessly, you create silos instead of efficiency.”

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill represents a fundamental evolution in how the UK protects the essential services that underpin modern healthcare, turning cyber‑defence into a statutory resilience model that extends regulatory responsibility across the entire digital supply chain.^{[5] [6]}

What are critical national services?

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology explains that the Bill protects services citizens rely on “to go about their normal lives,” including healthcare, energy, transport, drinking water, and digital infrastructure, which are treated as critical national services because disruption would affect normal societal functioning^[5]

The Bill expands oversight to ensure that even smaller suppliers become accountable if they support critical national services. These groups have been singled out because they hold privileged access or provide infrastructure whose disruption would have national‑level consequences^[6]

You are now directly in scope if you are a Managed Service Provider, a Data Centre Operator (meeting capacity thresholds), or a Designated Critical Supplier whose disruption could impact the UK economy, regardless of size.^{[6] [7]}

Reaction time: A new reporting standard

Transparency will be mandatory, with a rapid‑response model requiring organisations to notify their regulator (competent authority) and the national CSIRT/NCSC within 24 hours of becoming aware of a significant incident, followed by a full notification within 72 hours^{[8] [7]}

Bringing the future into focus

Suppliers of print, scan, copy and document‑workflow solutions must play a proactive role in delivering technologies that meet the strengthened security and incident‑response standards introduced by the Bill.

To prepare for the Bill’s expected 2026 enforcement, organisations should work more closely with suppliers to align with the NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) principles—covering governance, supply‑chain risk, protection against attack, event detection, and incident recovery—so that technology strengthens operations rather than introducing vulnerabilities^[5]

We’re uniquely positioned to collaborate and deliver secure, resilient document solutions that help organisations stay ahead of the Bill’s strengthened security expectations, click here to learn more.

Parts of the NHS which will be most affected:

• Hospital Trusts (acute, specialist, community): Explicitly treated as Operators of Essential Services (OES) in the health sector; required to meet strengthened security duties and incident reporting timelines because clinical systems and patient care rely on digitised infrastructure^[8]
• Integrated Care Boards (ICBs): Named within health OES scope and responsible for coordinating region‑wide digital services, making resilience and reporting obligations foundational to continuity across multiple care settings^[8]
• Diagnostic Services (pathology, imaging, labs): Highlighted due to real‑world disruption risk and the Bill’s power to designate critical suppliers where failure would affect essential services; suppliers into diagnostics can be brought directly into scope^{[8] [6]}
• NHS Hosting/Data‑centre Environments: Hosting for patient records, secure email, and AI workloads sits within the expanded scope -meeting capacity or service thresholds - bringing stricter resilience and reporting duties for NHS‑reliant platforms^{[5] [6]}

Considering the wider environment factors such as Government initiatives, strategic direction and the nature of the requirement -public organisations can choose from several compliant routes to market, each offering a different advantage.

• Frameworks provide a simple, compliant and flexible starting point by giving access to pre-qualified suppliers and may allow an award without competition (direct award) where the needs, preferred solution or continuity of service justify a streamlined approach.
• When a more detailed comparison is required, a competitive selection process (further competition) under a framework enables organisations to refine their specification and invite bids from a trusted pool of proven suppliers.
• For highly bespoke needs, a full tender opens the opportunity to the wider UK market, offering maximum competition and choice, though typically with a longer and more involved process.