Bedford releases £20m tender

Bedford Hospital NHS Trust has gone out to tender for an electronic medical record system in a contract worth up to £20m.

The trust, which uses the iPM patient administration system from CSC, is looking for a system to digitise its existing paper medical records and may extend the contract to purchase a full electronic patient record system.

This could include provision of a PAS, maternity, theatres, order communications and other modules.

The contract is worth between £5m – £20m over seven years with the option to renew for a further three years.

“The trust requires a solution that addresses the full scope of digitising the existing paper medical records which may in turn include the administrative and support functions within the Medical Records Department. This may in turn be extended to cover provision of a PAS/EPR system,” the tender says. 

“As well as providing specialist hardware and software, potential bidders will be required to provide transition and deployment services, solution support and maintenance, and solution monitoring.”

Bedford lists several hosting options for the system including local hosting by the trust and remote hosting by the system supplier.

The trust also wants the option to extend the system as the size and shape of the organisation changes. This could include service reconfiguration, collaboration and mergers with other NHS trusts.

Requests to participate are due by 14 April.