NHS trust puts out tender for electronic patient records system

Stuart Sumner, Computing, Thursday 9 September 2010 at 16:49:00

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust seeks a care records system
and e-prescribing functionality

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust has put out a tender for a
care records system and e-prescribing functionality.

A tender notice has been placed in the Official Journal of the European
Union for an ?integrated care record system capable of interfacing with the
contracting authorities' ICT products and systems, in a series of phases.?

In the tender, the Trust says that it expects the first phase to include
order communications, results reporting and documentation to support patient
discharge,


incorporating take out medications.

It envisages that the second phase will incorporate electronic drug
management including e-prescribing and drug administration for patient care.

Talking about the anticipated timescales for bids, a spokesperson for the
Trust said: "Currently, award is estimated as March subject to several milestone
checkpoints, the next one being November. The Trust is exploring several options
for timescales."

The tender went out before today's announcement from the Department of
Health (DoH) about the future of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The
spokeperson said that it had not been necessary to wait for the announcement
before releasing the tender.

"The Trust has been holding detailed discussions on this agenda for several
months. The Trust Board gave agreement to proceed in March 2010 and the
tendering process actually began in June/July of this year," she said.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2269532/nhs-trust-tenders-electronic