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- Smart Healthcare, Wednesday 11 November 2009 09.00 GMT
Two of the largest deals during the month were published by the NHS North West Collaborative Commercial Agency (NWCCA) on behalf of ambulance trusts across the UK.
One, worth an estimated £6m, is a framework agreement for operational research consultancy to improve efficiencies and response times. The lots include consultancy and demand capacity, management information, scenario planning and performance management.
The other tender published by NWCCA for ambulance trusts during October was for mobile data terminals, worth an estimated £4m.
The Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust also launched a couple of large tenders during the month. It expects to pay between £1m and £6m for an electronic document management system, which will include the scanning of existing paper records. The service element of the contract will last for three years, with options to extend it further.
Royal Devon also published a tender for an integrated order communications and e-prescribing system, as the first part of its work to implement an integrated electronic patient record (EPR) by 2014. It wants to see pilot areas live with order communications and e-prescribing by early summer of next year.
Other large tenders came from Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust, which expects to pay between £1.75m and £2.5m for a fixed and wireless data network, telephony and digital signage, and Highland Health Board, which requires IT services including helpdesk and server maintenance at an expected cost of £900,000 and £1.7m over eight years.
October's published contract awards were smaller in scope. GHX UK won a £600,000 deal to supply NWCCA with a web hosted catalogue management system, as well as £268,000 from Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for a procure to pay system. Basildon and Thurrock also awarded Ascribe a contract for a pharmacy computer system worth £159,000, and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust gave Carefx a £100,000 deal for pathology test utilisation alert software.
The NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre also awarded three framework contracts, all supporting its data analysis work. None had a final price disclosed, although one, for provision of data services, was listed as worth £8m when first advertised.
The companies listed in one or more of the framework deals were Atos Origin, Capita, CSC, Doctor Foster Intelligence, GeoSolve IT IMS Health, Mastek UK, Matrix Knowledge Group, Mede International, Northgate Information Solutions and Tribal Consulting. The frameworks also include universities and the South West Public Health Observatory.
Information is drawn from notices published in the Official Journal of the European Union. These, along with a monthly analysis of ICT tenders in all government sectors, are available to customers of KableDIRECT.
