Beyond the score: Why patient partnership matters in Value Based Procurement
In June 2026, the Government announced new Value Based Procurement (VBP) guidelines, giving NHS buyers a structured way to score medtech tenders. Domain three – ’patients and staff’ – covers health inequalities, patient experience and patient outcomes. On paper, that is real progress. Patient engagement deserves to be named as a key part of product design, not an afterthought.
But one key issue arises from the domain. Having a domain about patients is not the same as working in partnership with them. At the Patients Association, we work to bridge the gap between medtech companies and patients, helping to put patient voice at the heart of innovation. We can help you turn patient voice into stronger evidence and higher scores on your next tender.
Every supplier bidding into VBP will be asked the same domain three and five questions. The suppliers who score highest won’t be the ones with the best products alone, they’ll be the ones with the best evidence. Getting that evidence takes time, relationships and access most medtech companies don’t have in-house. That’s exactly what we provide.
Measuring is not the same as involving
The guidance asks suppliers to evidence how a product improves patient reported experience and outcome measures. We welcome this as data is important to understanding how patients experience and receive care. But what a patient views as a good outcome is different to how the system may define it.
Clinical teams often prioritise readmission rates, mortality or bed capacity. Patients often prioritise getting back into education or work, avoiding repeated hospital trips, and dignity and respect in how they are cared for. All these priorities are legitimate. But a tender response that is built only on the clinical definition risks missing the outcomes that matter most to the people relying on medtech products to improve their health.
Tackling health inequalities
Health inequalities is one of the areas within domain three where working with patients from the beginning makes the biggest difference. The guidance asks for evidence on how a product reduces health inequalities, exactly the evidence that is hardest to gather and easiest to get wrong. This is where organisations like the Patients Association can support the patient outcomes domain in your bids. We are constantly engaging new voices from communities that are seldom heard in healthcare innovation, and our connections across community organisations, voluntary groups and patients on the ground mean we can gather this evidence quickly, across condition types.
This kind of evidence is difficult and expensive to gather after a product has already rolled out, and it is far more credible to evaluators if it comes from patients who are involved in the design. Organisations that build patient advisory input into product development and pilots will have a head start on their competitors under the new rules.
Patients as partners in implementation and evaluation
Domain five also asks about ease of use and implementation. Directly involving patients in product design is the key to success here. Products shaped by patients see fewer workarounds, faster adoption and, for buyers, fewer costly redesigns.
Which patients get asked matters as much as whether patients get asked. If the only patients involved are digitally confident and drawn from well-resourced communities, the evidence base will be strong for them and weak for everyone else. This will then show in scoring for the health inequalities criteria under domain three.
What working in partnership looks like
Real patient partnership means:
- Involving patients when outcomes are being defined, not only when they are being measured
- Reaching beyond the usual patient representative networks into deprived communities and those who don’t usually get asked
- Treating patient input as part of the evidence base for evaluation criteria, alongside clinical data
- Building patient involvement into implementation planning, not just product testing
What we can do for your VBP submission
Companies that bring us in early will have better evidence, better products, and a stronger story for evaluators and a real competitive edge. Get in touch to talk about how we can support your next VBP submission by contacting rachel.power@patients-association.org.uk
Rachel Power
Chief Executive, the Patients Association