London trusts set ambitious EPR deadline

The nine London trusts undertaking a massive collaborative tender for patient administration systems and electronic patient record systems expect to have a new contract in place by spring next year.

The target means the procurement should be finalised more than two years before the National Programme for IT in the NHS contract for London ends in October 2015.

Barts and the London; Croydon University Hospital; Imperial College Healthcare; Kingston Hospital; Newham University Hospital; Royal Free Hampstead; South London Healthcare; St George’s Healthcare; and Whipps Cross University Hospital have come together to secure a new contract for a PAS and EPR.

The estimated value of the tender, issued in the Official Journal of the European Union last week, is between £250m and £400m.

John Goulston, regional director for provider development at NHS London, and London Programme for IT programme director, said the process is being started now to make sure trusts have the best chance of a secure contract being in place before the current contracts end.

“By working together on this contract, the trusts involved have the chance to increase the economy of scale of a potentially complex contract and make the system deliver more value for money,” he said.

The full tender is expected to be started in summer 2012, contracts signed in spring 2013, and trust contracts signed in summer 2013.

The agreement will also be made available to all London procurement programme member trusts.

Director of EHI Intelligence, Paul Smith said the new tender continued a trend towards collaborative tenders for procuring patient administration systems.

He said the collaborative approach should save the trusts money and make sure the suppliers under the tender’s different lots are completely committed to delivering consistent products to them.

“Starting early is a good thing because it should allow what is learned from this particular procurement to be re-used in other regions,” he said.

However, finalising a procurement two years before the current contract ends raises questions about whether the trusts will be getting the best value for money and the most up-to-date product, given the pace of change of technology, he added.

For example, the tender documents ask for information to be delivered to clinicians and patients via a portal, and it may be difficult for trusts to predict exactly what they will want in another three years’ time.

Smith believes the tender presents an opportunity for suppliers that were not part of the national programme to “take a chunk” out of the NHS PAS/EPR market.

However, all the trusts involved in the London procurement are Cerner Millennium sites, or look like candidates for adopting the system because they are due to merge with Cerner sites or other parts of the local health community are due to take it.