Roche wins Midlands LIMS contract

The Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Services Network, which involves three Midlands acute trusts, has awarded its laboratory information management system contract to Roche Diagnostics, in a deal that could be worth around £7m.

The network was established in May 2008 and provides cellular pathology, microbiology and blood sciences to George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, and surrounding primary care services.

The tendering process was led by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, which hosts the service that provides specific services such as clinical biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology, blood transfusion and phlebotomy.

Roche Diagnostics will be expected to supply the software, hardware and interfaces for the system as well as providing training, implementation and ongoing support for the system during the ten-year contract.

The award notice states that pathology services are being encouraged to “form networks” and there is potential for the Coventry and Warwickshire Pathology Services Network “to form a cluster and join with other pathology services locally in the future.”

This means the LIMS services contract might be extended to form part of an Central and East cluster.

The contract has been valued between £2.36m and £6.989m, dependent on the number of other pathology services that decide to join.