Scotland signs for patient info system

NHS National Services Scotland (NHS NSS) has struck a framework deal with InterSystems for the supply of a patient management system, but NI has opted out

In an initial round of contracts worth £44m, the company will provide its TrakCare product to a consortium of five health boards – Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Lanarkshire – to help manage acute and mental healthcare.

With NHS Lothian already using the system, it will now cover healthcare providers serving 70% of Scotland's population. NHS NSS said that other health boards are in discussions over use of the framework contract.

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon said of the InterSystems deal: "This contract will enable health boards across Scotland to implement a single, nationally available patient management system that will play a major role in improving patient services.

"Clinicians and patients will both be winners from a system which will track patient journeys from referral to discharge. It means clinicians will have easier and quicker access to medical records and patients will benefit from having more time with healthcare professionals," she added.

The tender notice for the integrated patient management system, published in April 2008, put the deal's value at £30m to £120m, and said the agreement would also be open to healthcare providers in Northern Ireland. NSS said that 73 companies expressed an interest in the original tender.

The notice said the system would include "a core patient administration system (including mental health), complex scheduling, clinical notes, order communications, accident and emergency, theatres, mental health clinical, maternity, clinical support tools, neonatal and the management of drugs including prescribing and administration". However, users are able to choose which of these modules they wish to buy, rather than having to take them all.

The deal is one of several national contracts recently placed by NSS on behalf of the Scottish health service, reflecting the country's centralisation of its informatics work. In 2009, it awarded Lumension a deal covering information security and Sun Microsystems a £9.5m contract for an identity and access management system.

The organisation is also in the process of tendering for a national GP systems deal, which may also be used by other primary care providers, worth £10m to £50m.

* Update, 5 February: Northern Ireland has chosen not to take up services under this framework contract, an NSS spokesperson said.

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