Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has chosen Alert Life Sciences as its preferred supplier for a new EPR, a company spokesperson confirmed. They have yet to complete and sign a contract, but the trust added that it hopes to do so by the end of this month.
In a staff bulletin, the trust said: "The information governance committee has accepted the recommendation of the Vision evaluation team to appoint Alert Life Sciences as the recommended supplier of the trust's new electronic patient record system," adding that the choice had been made after evaluations by a group of healthcare professionals from across the trust. The process "covered a wide range of aspects based on lists of needs provided by our staff at the beginning of the process," it added.
Blackpool is Alert's first NHS customer, although it signed up Circle Health's private sector hospital in Bath at the start of this year. The firm joined the NHS Additional Supply Capability and Capacity framework last year, through which Blackpool is planning to purchase its patient records system.
As a client of the North, Midlands and East local service provider CSC, Blackpool would formerly have been expected to use iSoft's Lorenzo suite. Trusts are now able to choose their own software under the National Programme for IT, although few have to date.
The Department of Health said it was aware of Blackpool's move. "We recognised it may become necessary to bring in additional supplier capacity and to take advantage of technological developments which is why the Additional Supply Capability and Capacity procurement was launched in 2007," said a spokesperson.
"We are continuing to work closely with the local service provider and the strategic health authorities across the North, Midlands and East of England to plan further roll-out of Lorenzo in a way that best meets the needs of the NHS," the department added.
iSoft last week said it will deal directly with trusts in the south of England, although following Fujitsu's departure as local service provider last year the area has not had a standard EPR package available.
"It is still early days, but taking iSoft's recent expansion into the Southern cluster, I think we are starting to see the green shoots of competition which is needed if the programme is to stay on track," said Chris Pennell, a senior analyst at Kable.
