Five trusts seek joint pathology service

A group of five NHS foundation trusts is looking to jointly procure a region-wide integrated pathology service.

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals and Royal Berkshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts, along with Surrey Pathology Services – a joint venture between Ashford and St Peter's, Frimley Park and Royal Surrey County Hospitals NHS foundation trusts – have issued a prior information notice about their plans.

The trusts have invited suppliers to a briefing day to explore the technical and commercial viability of delivering an integrated pathology service across their local areas.

“The viability of any such integration would require the development of a laboratory information management strategy capable of supporting the delivery of an integrated regional pathology service across a population of 3.3m and delivered out of multiple geographically dispersed NHS Foundation Trust locations,” the PIN says.

“The core of the proposed concept would need to be supported by the supply of a Laboratory Information Management System and an enterprise wide Master Patient Index, underpinned by a robust information technology infrastructure that could be in totality owned and operated by the NHS or hosted by the private sector.”

The briefing day, held on 21 February, will determine the range of systems on the market and costs of implementing them at scale, as well as “the attractiveness to the market and value for money to the NHS, of different commercial approaches including the infrastructure owned and operated by the NHS, owned operated and managed by the private sector, or other commercial arrangements,” the PIN explains.

“This information will help assist and inform the foundation trusts in their independent development of the pathology integration business planning and any IT specification requirements which may need to be competitively tendered in the future to support the any scheme.”