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HP and Epic 'preferred bidders' for UK eHospital plan

NHS trusts to ink 10-year deal to move to shared platform

Cambridge University Hospitals and Papworth Hospital NHS foundation trusts have named HP and Epic as preferred bidders for the implemenation of a common technology platform, including the deployment of an electronic patient record system (EPR).

The programme, known as eHospital, will see the two trusts move from their individual legacy systems to a shared platform ahead of Papworth Hospital's move to Cambridge's biomedical campus site in 2015.

The boards of the two trusts have selected HP as the preferred bidder to supply the necessary hardware and infrastructure, while Epic will provide the software and services to manage the trusts' patient services, including the EPR.

The 10-year contract is expected to be signed at the end of June. Cambridge, which is leading the procurement, has not published the expected costs of the deal.

An invitation to tender issued by the trusts in June last year set out their intention to procure and implement a common technology platform with integrated clinical and hospital management systems.

The trusts hope the current in-house infrastructure will evolve from a static, one-application-per-device approach to a "dynamic infrastructure where the network, servers, storage and applications are considered as a whole and managed and provisioned jointly for optimal function and security integration at every level", the invitation to tender said.

The combined organisations have more than 9,000 staff and 1,300 beds.

Dr Gareth Goodier, chief executive of Cambridge University Hospitals, said: "This is more than an electronic patient record system – it will support clinical decisions and lead to better prescribing, improved patient communications and more effective management of our services.

"Work continues on all the necessary checks to ensure that we are making the right decision to invest in this programme."

This article was originally published at Guardian Government Computing.

Guardian Government Computing is a business division of Guardian Professional, and covers the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.

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