Northumbria issues framework tender

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has released a framework tender for a range of clinical systems that it says could be worth up to £200 million.

The tender, on the Official Journal of the European Union’s website, outlines the trust’s plans for a framework “for the provision of an integrated electronic health record system”, with an estimated value of between £6 million and £200 million.

The tender says the framework will be open to NHS organisations, which will be able to set up individual call-off contracts for the required services, with a framework length of four years. The tender is divided into three lots.

Lot one is for an electronic prescribing and medicines administration system, which the tender says will improve the quality of prescribing and medicines administration processes and records, reduce the current risks associated with the areas, and interface to an automated drug storage solution to complete a closed loop for prescribing.

Lot two of the framework, for a ward information management system, says the project “would represent a major step in moving from paper to a consolidated electronic record” by supporting the collection of patient observations at the bedside.

Lot three, for an A&E system, says a modern system is required to deliver improvements and data quality and eliminate related risks, while delivering basic information requirements. “At present the department relies on a manual system of accessing paper notes that can result in delays.”

The tender says the A&E system should also support current data requirements to satisfy national demands, while providing adequate managerial and clinical information.

The trust was awarded funding for the projects in the first round of NHS England’s technology fund. It received £411,000 for an observations system and £539,000 for an e-prescribing and medicines administration system, for a total award of £950,000.

The tender says Northumbria is also purchasing the systems on behalf of North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Northumbria is planning to acquire North Cumbria, but a recent report to the Northumbria trust board says “acquisition timescales are delayed”, as a result of North Cumbria being placed into special measures following a review from NHS England medical director Sir Bruce Keogh into 14 trusts that were “persistent outliers” on mortality indicators.

Northumbria went live with its Silverlink patient administration system in January this year, replacing the trust’s legacy McKesson Totalcare PAS which it had used for 17 years.

Northumbria originally went out to tender for an interim PAS in 2006, while it waited for the National Programme for IT to deliver. It then stopped the procurement when it was promised it would be the next in line for Lorenzo.

However, after it became clear that this was unlikely to happen in the near future, the trust went out to tender again in 2010 and subsequently awarded the contract to Stalis in December 2011.

Suppliers who want to participate in the tender must submit their interest by January 19. Northumbria told EHI it is unable to comment on the tender until is completed at the end of March next year.