Ortivus wins £10m ambulance contract

Two southern ambulance trusts have awarded a £10m contract to Swedish company Ortivus to provide a managed electronic care record service.

The four-year contract will support the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust to electronically capture, exchange and report on patient information.

The contract was initially valued at £19m when a tender was issued in January last year and involved four Southern ambulance trusts. However, two trusts have since merged and one pulled out of the procurement, which is being funded centrally under the Southern Local Clinical Systems programme.

Around half of the £10m contract is expected to be subcontracted out.

A spokesperson for the South Central Ambulance Service said the contract will deliver a managed electronic care record service for up to 1,300 ambulances and 5,000 staff across the two trusts’ service areas.

“This will enable us to electronically record, exchange and report accurate patient information. The devices that will be rolled out will additionally enable our paramedics to capture and exchange demographic and clinical information,” he said.

The service will be introduced on a vehicle by vehicle basis starting this spring and finishing in November.

The spokesperson said the service will deliver an improved and safer experience for patients, as crews will have access to information at the point of care.

“This means patients can potentially be treated at, or closer to home, thus reducing unnecessary ambulance journeys and potentially attendances at A&E. Access to additional information will also enable our crews to provide additional care and have increased decision support in the way they treat patients.”

The spokesperson added that the new system will allow ambulances to be able to send information electronically, to hospitals, GPs and other relevant health care providers. 

“We will also be able to access relevant information about patients from other care systems and are working closely with other local healthcare providers and the National Summary Care Record Team,” he added.

The Ortivus company website says it has 26 employees in Sweden and the UK and more than 1300 ambulances using its systems.

The SLCS programme is for the 60% of providers in the South that otherwise got nothing from the National Programme for IT. The business case for the ambulance trusts was approved by the DH and Treasury early last year

Nine NHS organisations are getting TPP as part of a £32m community and child health programme and more than £80 of central funding has been made available for the acute part of the programme.

The fourth strand of the SLCS programme, integration, has been axed.