11 trust consortium picks HSS RIS

Trusts in the Cheshire and Merseyside Consortium are to implement radiology information systems from HSS, after completing the first part of a collaborative procurement.

The consortium, which represents 11 trusts working in conjunction with Informatics Merseyside, issued a tender last November for a replacement picture archiving and communications system, RIS and vendor neutral archive.

Since 2007, the trusts have been using a shared RIS service, provided under the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The Informatics Merseyside PACS and RIS replacement programme team was tasked to procure new systems as CSC’s local service provider contract is due to end on 30 June next year.

Programme manager for Informatics Merseyside, Natalie Pfirsch, told eHealth Insider that the trusts were involved throughout the process, providing the “criteria” against which the service measured interested suppliers.

“All the trusts have been fully engaged throughout the process and have coordinated all the details, enabling us to make important decisions regarding the weighting of the criteria to make the judgements,” she said, adding that the lots for PACS and VNA were to be awarded shortly.

RIS was “lot 2” in the tender, estimated value of the RIS contract provided in the tender ranged from £500,000 – £2m.

According to Pfirsch, Informatics Merseyside chose HSS following a “robust invitation to tender” process and after conducting a site visit to Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where a HSS RIS system is currently deployed.

Paul Turner, head of business management at the organisation, said that the trusts had enjoyed a number of benefits by working together.

“It has been a very successful programme and we are hoping it’s a benchmark for doing things similar in the future, which will benefit the local health economy.

“To get to this point I think the procurement and the programme management team has created significant savings right across the local health economy.

“We have been able to maintain a lot of the information sharing principles that came out in the information strategy, and this is only going to support care pathways,” he told EHI.

The representatives for the organisation said that the first stage of the project will go-live in January 2013, with all trusts using the new systems purchased before the end of the current national contracts. The new contracts are for a period of five years, with the option to extend.

The 11 trusts in the consortium are: Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust , Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.