Leicester picks IBM as IT partner

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust has picked IBM to provide it with IM&T services and to procure and implement a new electronic patient record.

The trust’s chair, Martin Hindle, signed an agreement with the company in the run-up to Christmas, and trust IT staff and services will be transferred over to it over the next 18 months.

Local press reports say 88 staff will be affected by the move, which is the outcome of a tender process billed as being worth up to £600m over 15 years.

University Hospitals of Leicester issued a tender in November 2011, saying that it was looking for a partner to improve its IT services, implement an EPR and form a commercial arrangement to deliver services to other organisations.

EHealth Insider reported in March last year that the trust received 70 expressions of interest, and was working with six bidders.

In a statement announcing the partnership with IBM, Andrew Seddon, the director of finance and business services, said: “The procurement process attracted strong interest from the market.

“The bids were evaluated over a range of criteria, including partnership, delivering core IT services, transformation capability as well as value for money.

“We received very strong presentations from our shortlisted bidders, and we are pleased that IBM will be working with us.”

The trust will now transfer its IT services to IBM and its partner, NTT DATA, which will provide infrastructure and related services.

The trust’s medical director, Dr Keith Harris, said it would also be looking “at a number of projects to give some early benefits while we procure an EHR.”

As part of this, he said the trust would be looking to create a clinical portal “where doctors can access all of the information about their patients, from letters to results of diagnostic tests.”

Seddon said the trust expected the link-up with IBM to “transform” its IT over ten years.

In a separate announcement, University Hospitals of Leicester, Leicester Partnership NHS Trust and the Liecester City, Leicestershire County and Rutland Primary Care Trust Cluster confirmed a £700m outsourcing deal with Interserve.

Around 2,000 staff could be affected by this move, which will see Interserve provide catering, cleaning, maintenance and security services to the three organisations, and work with them on modernisation projects.