Yorkshire trust procures for new clinical system

South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust has issued a procurement notice for the supply of an integrated clinical information system outside of the NHS Connecting for Health IT programme.

Under the accelerated procurement nine non-clinical software systems currently in use will be replaced by a single integrated clinical system starting from April 2006.

The contract notice calls for the provision of "a clinical information system to the South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust to include training, implementation, maintenance, project management, support and associated services".

Although the trust falls within the North East cluster of the NHS National Programme for IT, it has decided that it cannot wait for the integrated iSoft system due to be delivered by its local service provider Accenture.

The South West Yorkshire trust is using a special accelerated procurement procedure due to its pressing need for new clinical IT systems. The procurement notice describes its current position as having a "negative impact" on patient care and trust performance.

The procurement notice explains that the trust currently has nine, inherited and non-integrated clinical systems. "This position cannot be sustained due to the negative impact this has on clinical and performance issues which, have now increased to an unacceptable level. The trust needs to procure a single clinical information system that can be implemented across the organisation with effect from April 2006."

In a statement to E-Health Insider the trust said: "The South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust was established in April 2002 from three different organisations and inherited nine different clinical information systems. This creates inefficiency in the way clinical teams are able to work and affects our performance (star) rating.

"The trust has been working closely with NPfIT to find a system that would meet the trust’s clinical and business needs. However due to the complexity of the current systems and the need to consolidate them it is not currently possible for the trust to be an early deployment site for NPfIT."

As a result the trust board has taken the decision to invest in an interim clinical information system in the current financial year. "Investing in a single system now will put us in a stronger position to transfer our data onto an NPfIT system as soon as this becomes available," explained the trust.

The trust stressed, however, that it "remains fully committed to the NHS National Programme for IT and its objectives". A spokesperson for the trust said it was not possible to say how long the new ‘interim’ clinical system would be in use, or by what date it would migrate to the NPfIT solution.

"We expect to play a full and active part in the national programme locally and will continue to work with the Strategic Health Authority, the North East Cluster and the Local Service Provider to ensure the development of functionality to meet the needs of mental health patients and deliver the far reaching benefits of nationally shared information and systems," said the trust.